YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1943

HISTORY OF THE
General Slocum Disaster

BY WHICH NEARLY

1200 LIVES WERE LOST

BY THE BURNING OF THE STEAMER GENF.RAI
SLOCUM IN HELL GATE, NEW YORK
HARBOR, JUNE 15, 1904.

ILLUSTRATED.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY J. S. OGILVIE.

COPTBIQHT, 1904, BT
J. S. OCHLYEE PCTBUSHTNa CoMPAHT.

New Toek :
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY.
67 Hose Stbeet.

3G4-P

PREFACE

In presenting a brief history of one of the greatest ca
lamities of modem times, by which nearly twelve hundred
persons were burned to death and drowned in New York
Harbor, we have necessarily had to depend upon different
vrriters and upon many sources of information for the facts
contained in this book, but we have taken the greatest pos
sible care that all statements made are as nearly the aetual
truth as possible, and we give them to the public, believing,
as we do, that many persons will be glad to have, as a mat
ter of reference, the facts condensed together in one volume.
The Compilee.

HISTORY

OF THE

GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER

CHAPTEE I.
Nothing approaching the recent General Slocum disas
ter has happened in New York waters before. The exact
number of the women and children who were burned to
death and drowned by the burning of the pleasure steamer
¦General Slocum will not be far from twelve hundred.
Nearly all of those who were burned and drowned were
women and little children, members of the Sunday School
of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, in Sixth street, who were
on their annual excursion.
Between 1,400 and 1,500 people, so far as can be learned,
started out on the Slocum. Nearly a third of them were
babies. Try as best they coxild, the police and hospital au
thorities and the officers of the church could not find
more than 300 or 400 survivors. But everybody believed
that, when matters were straightened out, and all the
hospitals began to give an accounting of the wounded they
had taken in spontaneously, the list of those members of
the excursion still living would be most happily lengthened.
Many of the excursionists were children not attached to the
church. 5

6 THE GENEBAIi SLOCUM DISASTEE.
HOW COULD IT HAPPEN ?
"How did such a thing happen?" That was the ques
tion which was reiterated up and down the length and
breadth of the eity. People read of the captain who found
at 110th street that his boat, with its precious cargo, was on
fire and yet did not drive it to the shore until he was
beyond 138th street, a mile and a half from the place where
the cry of "Fire!" first reached his ears.
Captain William H. Van Schaick of the Slocum ex
plained, as best he could, how such horrible disaster had
come to a company under his care and direction. He is a
man 61 years old, and has had long experience in com
manding pleasure craft in the waters around New York.
Captain Van Schaick said that though he heard the alarm
of fire early, he made up his mind at once that there was-
no certain place where she could be beached in shallow
water south of North Brother Island. The tide was run
ning up to the Sound with terrific velocity, and he wa&
sure that he would lose time trying to turn his boat into a
proper beaching place south of North Brother Island. He
stuck to his post, although the flames scorched his cloth
ing, until the boat was hard and fast ashore. Pilot Van
Wart stayed with him.
Eivermen generally were divided as to the good Judg
ment shown by Capt. Van Schaick in trying to go so far.
The captain himself admitted that it was not until after
the fire had been going some time that he realized its
fierceness and its ,rapidity. Captain Van Schaick and
pilots Van Wart and Weaver were arrested and were sent
to the prison cells of Bellevue Hospital,, for all of them
were badly burned. LAMP ROOM FED THE EIRE.
There was a compartment in the hold of the General

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 7
Slocum known as the second cabin. It was forward, just
aft the forecastle. In this room were kept the lamps and
the oil for them, the gasolene and the brass-polishing li
quids, and all the other inflammable supplies. It cannot
be determined whether or not the fire started in this cabin.
But it was known that the flames were fed there to reach
their greatest and most murderous intensity. From that
cabin the fire swept back through the boat with a fierceness
that no fire-fighting apparatus could hold in check.
THE PITY OF IT.
There were scenes of horror on the General Slocum and
on shore such as it would not be decent to set down on
paper, even though any chronicler had the ability. It was
a boatload of women and little children. For the last mile,
when the steamer, spouting flames high into the air, was
shooting swiftly out to the Sound with the tide, people on
the shore and on other steamers could see the women and
children fluttering over the sides into the water in scores.
The river is swift there at flood tide. The waves grab for
ward at one another with hungry white fingers. A strong
man would have but little chance. The women and the
children had no chance.
There have been heard such stories as often come out
after a disaster — stories of cruel selfishness by members of
the crew, of cold disregard of the Slocum's distress signals
and most evident need by pleasure and business craft in
the harbor. In the end came the story that there had been
looting of the bodies of the dead. Some of these things
were more or less true.
HEROIC WORK OF RESCUERS.
But there was a glorious record of self-sacrifice and oT
bravery to be set over against all that was evil or unmanly.

S THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Of such were the bravery with which the old captain and Ms
pilots stayed at their posts ; the noble efforts of Policemen
Kelk and Van Tassel, who were on the burning boat, to
save the lives of those entrusted to their care ; the beautiful
¦ recklessness of the women nurses and the convalescent pa-
j tients from the hospitals on North Brother Island, risking
their lives to dash into the water around the buming boat
to pull out drowning children and women ; the brave deeds
of the men on the city's boats, the Franklin Edson and the
Massasoit, and on the tugs Theo aud Wade. Some day
someone will fittingly dress out the deeds of that little man,
(Capt. Jack Wade, and his daredevil crew. For every one
whose deeds were seen and mentally registered in the flying
moments of horror and peril, there were hundreds of
-others in which the rescued were too much scared to ap
preciate what was being done for them, and the rescuers
were too busy to take note for themselves.
^ Ambulances and patrol wagons from nearly every corner
of the city were sent to points along The Bronx shore near
est the wreck. Physicians and nurses came by hundreds,
not only from hospitals, public and private, in all the bo
roughs of the city, but singly, from their private offices,
from as far away as Newark and Paterson.
NORTH BROTHER ISLAND A MORGUE. I
' Bodies were sent down to the Bellevue Morgue from;
North Brother Island as fast as they were recovered, until
there was no more room there. Most of them were uniden
tified. At about 5 o'clock at night, when the tide was low,
there was a sudden increase in the rapidity with which
bodies were recovered. They were brought out of the water
near where the Slocum had been grounded at the rate of
labout one a minute. A temporary morgue was established

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 9
on the island. The systematizing of the work of identifi
cation was completed, and it is hoped that nearly all the
recovered bodies may be recognized. Some of them were
so badly burned that they will never be recognized. At
night great silent crowds, thousands and thousands of peo
ple, stood in front of the church in Sixth street, in front
of the morgue and the Alexander Avenue Police Station,
and along the East Eiver shore opposite North Brother
Island — wherever the bodies of the victims were laid or
where news of them could be learned.
THE SLOCUM SAILS OUT GAILY.
The General Slocum, which was built of wood, started
around the Battery at about 7 o'clock on the morning of
the fatal day. Her crew of twenty-seven was aboard. She
reached the foot of Third street, in the East Eiver, where
there is a recreation pier, at about twenty minutes past
8 o'clock. There were several hundred excursionists already on the
pier when the Slocum arrived. There were mothers full
of pride in their lusty German-American babies, and full
of anxiety for fear some of them would fall overboard in
their haste to get on board the Slocum before anybody else
did. A band came and went to the after deck and began
booming out melodies dear to the German and the East
Side heart.
The mothers and children kept pouring across the gang
plank and scurrying for "good places" about the decks.
¦The Eev. G. C. F. Haas, and his assistant, the Eev. J. S.
Schultz, stood on opposite sides of the gang plank and wel
comed the mothers and the scholars. Policeman Kelk and
Van Tassel, full of experience in the handling of Sunday,
¦School excursions, took posts on the off-shore side of the

10 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
steamer, ready to dive after any towhead who by mischance
should fall overboard. It was as fine a day for a picnic as
ever was. The sunlight made the blue water seem as bright
as though it lay anywhere but between the piers of the big
gest eity of this nation. The ugly factory walls were set
off by masts and flags, and big boats and little boats seemed
rather to be skittering over the river for their own amuse
ment than for any purpose of sordid profit.
IT WAS AN IDEAL DAY.
The excursion was late in starting. Lutherans are great
folk for going to family picnics in big family parties.
Greta and Wilhelmina and August's wife gather from the
corners of Manhattan and Brooklyn and bring all their
children, and combine their luncheons so that it shall be
served to ten or fifteen hungry mouths in proper propor
tions. And if any one of the whole family circle was late,
then aU the rest went to Pastor Haas and besought him,
by all that was dear and sweet, not to let the boat go until
sister and her little ones came. Pastor Haas was good-
natured, and it was well along toward 10 o'clock when the
Slocum started, the band on the upper deck playing "Ein
Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott."
The children tugged at their skirts, held down by
their smiling mothers and big sisters and grandmothers,
and cheered at the departing pier. There was not a chill
in the air. There was not a cloud on the blue sky. Pastor
Haas went up and down the decks, and the matrons loudly
communicated their congratulations to him.
Hell Gate, where the tide was rushing out to the Sound
with the utmost violence, was passed safely. There isn't
a steamer captain in this harbor, no matter though he be
as old as Capt. Van Schaick, who is not glad when he has

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 11
passed through Hell Gate without a collision and without
being slewed out of his course against its rocky sides.
STEAMBOAT BURSTS INTO FLAMES. ¦' ¦;
Though Capt. Van Schaick did not know it, the steamer
must even then have been on fire. Just back of the crew's
quarters, up in the bow of the steamer under the main
deck, is what is called the second cabin. On the Slocum
this cabin has been used as a sort of storeroom. Spare
hawsers and paint and oils were kept there. Gasolene was
kept there, and it was there that Albert Payne, a negro
steward, kept the ship's lamps when they were not in place,
and cleaned and filled them. Payne, his face ashy with
the horrors he had been through, swore that he had fin
ished cleaning all the lamps before the boat left her dock
early that morning, and that he had not been in the
room, except to see that everything was all right. He
swore that just before the boat left East Third street the
second cabin was all right.
Along the Astoria shore, where there are many yards for
the building of small boats, the trouble was known sooner
than it was on the steamer itself. As the Slocum passed
Broadway, Astoria, John E. Eonan, a Dock Department
employee, was struck with the gayety of the steamer, with
her flags, her music and her load of hilarious children, and
called to a companion:
'Tiook at the Slocum ! Don't it make you hate to work
when you ses a crowd having as good a time as that?"
But a quarter of a mile further on, WiUiam Alloway, the%
captain of a dredge, saw a burst of smoke puff out from
the lower deck of the Slocum just forward of the smoke
stacks. He let off four blasts of his dredge whistle. At
the same moment other boats on each side of the river be-

13 THE GENERAL SLOCUJiI DISASTER.
gan to toot shrill warnings. Alloway and his men could
see a scurrying on the decks of the Slocum. They won
dered why Capt. Van Schaick didn't back his boat right
into the Astoria shore.
ALARM AT LAST GIVEN ON BOARD.
From the best understanding of the situation which
could be gained from those who were left alive when every
thing was over, it was quite a while after the Slocum was
first found to be on fire that the seriousness of the situation
was understood by all of her officers and crew. Very few
of the passengers knew anything of the real danger they
were in until the burning and drowning had begun.
Eddie Flanagan was the Slocum's mate. On excursion
steamers the safety and comfort of the passengers are dele
gated to the mate, while the captain is in the pilot house, as
he always is, very properly, while the boat is in motion. To
Flanagan there came a deckhand and Steward McGann.
He caught Flanagan by the shoulder and said :
"Mate, there's a fire forward, and it's got a pretty good
headway." Flanagan jumped down through the dark space in the
middle of the boat and turned the lever of the fire drill
alarm. He sent McGann to warn Capt. Van Schaick.
The crew was not enough to handle so many passengers..
The fire crackled up through one deck after another, licking
out far on the port side. There was a rush for the stern.
Some of the children thought that the whole alarm was a
joke, and laughed and pummeled one another as they ran.
The mothers didn't. They lumbered after, trying vainly
to keep hold of some one garment on the bodies of each one
of their youngsters.
Captain Van Schaick ran back from the pilot-house and

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 13
saw that Flanagan had two lines of hose run from the
steamer's fire-pumps toward the second cabin, and that
the water was already spurting through them. The fire
¦drill on the Slocum was always well done. It was held,
without any requirement of law, once every week. But this
fire was beyond any mere fire drill. It took Captain Van
Schaick only a minute to see that he ought to get his pas
sengers ashore as soon as he could. He determined on the
north shore of North Brother Island.
THE FULL HORROR COMES IN HASTE.
It takes time to read of all these things. It took almost
no time at all for them to happen. The yells and screams
of the few people who were caught on the decks below the
hurricane deck forward were ringing horribly across the
water. The roar and crackle of the oil-fed flames shut
these screams off from the frightened mass of Sunday
School people aft.
Kelk and Van Tassel had leaped into the crowds wlien
the fire-gongs rang. It was due to them that more women
and children were not caught forward of the fire. They
herded the people back like sheep until nearly the whole
company were huddled together on the broad afterdecks.
The fire was eating its way back steadily. The
people were getting more and more frightened. Moth-
f ers whose children had been separated from them in the
rush were getting frantic, and dashing madly through the
crowd. Confusion grew almost as fast as the fire at the
other end of the boat was growing. Van Tassel took to
the rail.
"Now, everybody keep quiet!" he shouted again and
again, waving his big arms reassuringly at women who were
grasping the rail and already leaning over and trying to
make up their minds to jump.

14 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
Pastor Haas had found his wife and his twelve-year-old
daughter Gertrude and had put them near the back of a
companionway, where he was-gure he could find them. He,
too, tried to calm his people. He might as well have tried
to cahn the whirling tide that was bearing the burning (
steamer along to its end. They were fighting now. Moth
ers who had started side by side with an endless fund of
sympathy for domestic difficulties were fighting like wild
beasts. 0\'ERBOARD BY HUNDREDS.
Screams came from the water. A woman looked over
and saw thr4e children floating by on the starboard side.
The head of one of them was covered with blood where a
blade of the paddlewheel had wounded it. The woman
screamed just once, so loud that for a moment all the other
horrible sounds of the boat seemed hushed. She pointed a
finger at the little bodies that were floating back from the
forward decks.
"Frieda !" she screamed. "Meine Frieda !"
Before a hand could be raised to stop her, if indeed there
was anyone there cool enough in that moment to raise a
hand, the mother jumped on the seat and threw herself
over the rail. She sank, whirling over and over in the swift
current. So did the children. But other bodies came.
As the flames worked upward and backward more and more
people were driven to jump to escape being burned. Merci
fully, the pilot-house, away forward and up in the air, was
in a position which the flames found it hard to reach. The
captain and his pilots were able to keep steering.
It seemed to be the captain's purpose as he came up past
130th street to try to find a berth on The Bronx side
of the stream. There are a number of coal and wood yards
along there and some factories. Eivermen said that he

THE GENERAL S.LOCUM DISASTER. 15
might well have carried out his plan. The land forces of
the Fire Department could have reached him there. But
he said that a tug warned him off, telling him that he would
only be setting fire to the shore buildings, and would not be
helping his people in the least, if he ran in there.
BOATS TO THE RESCUE.
At any rate, the General Slocum, observed now by hun
dreds of horror-dazed people on both sides of the stream
and on the islands, turned again toward North Brother.
Steamers and tugs from far down stream were making
after her. The Department of Correction boat Massasoit
was on the far side of the Brother islands. Her captain
lay in wait for the Slocum, not knowing tiirough what
channel she would come. From down stream came the
slim, white Franklin Edson, the Health Department boat.
Thence, too, came the sturdy little Wade, with her tough'-
talking, daredevil, great-hearted little captain, Jack Wade.
There came also the tugs Theo and Easy Time, tooting
their whistles, headed for the burning steamer.
LOOKED TO THE MAINLAND FOE HELP.
On board the Slocum horror was being piled on horror
too fast for any one to keep track of them. The fire, leap
ing now high above the framework of the steamer's hog
back and roaring with a smoky glare of red tongues np
thirty feet over the tall brown smokestacks, had begun to
scorch the edges of the compact mass of women and chil
dren who were crowding back out of its way at the rear
end of the boat.
The greater number of these people by far were on The
Bronx side of the decks. They seemed to feel, poor crea-

<%

16' THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
tures, that small as their chance for rescue was, when it
came it would come from the thickly populated shore
rather than from the bleak, rocky, bare spaces on the
islands on the starboard side. The Slocum was now oppo
site 138th street, heading partly across the river toward
North Brother Island.
OVERBOARD WITH BROKEN RAIL.
With a crack and echoing volley of screams that set
on edge the teeth of men: hardened to almost any form of
death or evidence of pain, the port rail of the Slocum's
after-deck gave way and all the people near it slipped and
¦slid, one over another, into the \*'ater. She had hardly gone
'200 yards further on — indeed, by ones and threes and twos
and sevens gaily dressed women and little tots all in white
were seen whirling down from the deck into the racing tide
— when worse came. The steamers and tugs in pursuit
were catching up one woman here or a child there, but it
was not much they could do. The tide was too swift,
and there was too much work to be done ahead to warrant
any delay over individuals.
EXPLOSION BURIES HUNDREDS.
There was a puff like a great cough down in the Slocum's
inwards. A red starry cloud of sparks and smoke and
flames shot up and the greater part of the superstructure
aft plunged forward into the flames. How many hundreds
of lives were snuffed out in that one instant nobody will
ever know. Outsiders could see writhing, crawling figures
in the buming wreckage, slipping dovm further and further
into the flames until they were gone. As bees cling along a
branch when they are swarming, there was a thick clustery-

THE GENERAL SLOCUM i/iiSASTER. 17
ing of women, all screaming, and boys and girls around the
edges of so much of the superstructure as was stiU stand
ing. At the very back Kelk, the policeman, was standing,
catching up some of the smallest children and hurling
them out at the decks of the nearest following steamers^
Mothers threw their children overboard and leaped after
them. When the stanchions burned out and the super
structure fell families were separated.
Thus it happened to Dominie Haas. He had given up
¦as hopeless any effort to get the people quiet, and had
just found his wife and daughter. The crash came and
he lost them. BEACHED AT LAST.
Now the big steamer, ablaze for more than two-thirds
¦of her 250 feet of length, was rounding the point of North
Brother Island. The flames were reaching out for the
pilot-house. The door toward the fire was blackened here
and there and the paint blisters were bursting with little
puffs of fire. But the hundred nurses gathered eagerly on
shore waiting a chance to help, saw old man Van Schaick
and his pilots at their wheel, straining forward as though
by their own physical force they could make the boat go
faster. The captain and Van Wart are both of scrawny, hollow-
cheeked build. Both have sandy side-whiskers, cropped
close. Van Wart is taller than the captain. Weaver, the
other pilot, is of heavier build. They made a wonderful
picture, the three of them. Afterward, when the horrors
were all over except the most ghastly horror of all — the
piling up and labeling of the dead — ^men spoke of the pic
ture. It was at no moment certain that the pilot-house

18 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
would not shrivel up and vanish in a puff of smoke. If !¦£
did the Slocum would never get close enough to the shore
¦ to make it possible for help to be given to the passengers
who were still living. And the two old men and the
younger, with never a look backward, whirled their wheel
and braced it, and with their teeth set close together and
never a ward kept their eyes fixed on the one little stretch
of rocky beach where it was possible for a steamer as big as
the Slocum to-be beached accurately and safely.
They succeeded in the fight that they had been making
all the way from the Sunken Meadows, where the Sea-
wanhaka was beached years ago. Capt. Van Schaick was
past the Sunken Meadows, he said yesterday, before he
knew that he had a fire on his boat, and the tide was too
strong to let him turn back to beach her there, even had
there been any way of rescue out there in the middle of
the river. WORK OF RESCUE.
The only heartening incidents of the whole horrible half
hour began happening as soon as the Slocum's bottom
scraped on the North Brother Island shore, about twenty-
five feet from the sea wall.
The Massasoit, which was the closest boat behind the
Slocum when she struck, drew so much water that it was
impossible to get her bow within fifty feet of the Slocum. ^
It didn't make any difference to Carl Eappaport, her cox
swain. He took a running jump forward over the bow
and swam toward the burning steamer. Like a big red
headed St. Bernard he grabbed two babies and swam back
to his own boat. Meantime the captain of the Massasoit
was putting boats overboard as fast as he knew how. When
these were out picking up people from the water wherever

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 13
they could, Eappaport was floimdering around helping,
from the water side.
The Franklin Edson, with her new clean coat of white^
and gilt paint, drew less water than the Massasoit and
went right up to the Slocum's side so that people jumped
from the burning decks and were dragged back to safety..
Por safety was not on the forward deck of the Edson.
She needs a new coat of paint. Her forward windows
were cracked by the heat and there are the marks of flame
for the forward thirty feet of her superstructure.
JACK WADE AND EUDDY M^CARROL.
Jack Wade, master and owner of his little tug, was pitch
ing his life preservers over, turning loose his boats and
pushing up so close to the burning decks that the hair on
his brawny arms frizzled and his men, John McDonnell,
Euddy Mc Carrol and Bob Brannigan, had their shirts
burned off their backs. It wasn't worth while afterward
to attempt to get this crew to tell how many lives it saved.
They had been too busy to count.
Euddy Mc Carrol was plain beaten out for the first time
in his life. The effort which finished him had been get
ting a very heavy German woman over the side, single-
handed. When she was aboard she began to scream. Euddy
laid himself out fiat, face down along the rail, and was
sure he was going to die, he was so exhausted.
FIREBOAT COMES FLYING UP.
All along the shore, as the burning steamboat had come
along the stream on the breast of the tide, fire alarms had
been rung. One alarm at the foot of 138th street was
rung three times. There was nothing the firemen could
do when they came except just one thing, which was done
at once. The captain of the first company to arrive at the

so THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
xiver's edge telephoned for the fireboat Zophar 'Mills. She
came up the river, screaming, with a voice that outscreamed
-all the other whistles which were being blown in every fac-
i:ory and yard from which the blazing steamship could
% "he seen.
I The captain of the Mills saw that the Slocum was beached
and that rescuers were more needed than pumpers of water.
He ran into 138th street and took aboard Capt. Geoghegan
and all the reserves of the Alexander Avenue Station and
took them over the river to help in the vrork of picking
people out of the water from rowboats and tugs. There is
a big marble works opposite North Brother Island. The
boss, when he saw the Slocum, knocked off all work and
sent his 150 men across in any and every sort of craft that
they could lay their hands on.
NURSES WADE OUT UP TO THEIE NECKS.
Meantime the hundred nurses and the tuberculosis pa
tients were doing wonderful things. Delicate-looking young
women, in the daiuty white uniforms which nurses wear.
Tan down to the water's brink and waded in up to their
necks and formed human chains, along which struggling,
•half-drowned refugees were passed. Miss O'Donnell, the
assistant nurse in charge, went out and brought in seven
dead people and eight living. Every other nurse in the
place was doing nearly as well. Dr. Watson, the head of
the hospital, was out in the water with them, cheering them
on. Mary McCann, a 16-year-old ward helper, just over
from Ireland, swam out four times and each time brought
-a living child to the shore.
HULK A FURNACE  MANY STILL ALIVE ABOARD.
Even though relieved by these evidences — ^but one or two
•out of hundreds that were happening unrecorded — of the

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 23
working of good and brave human hearts, the misery and
the horror were going on almost undiminished. The great
hulk was still burning like a furnace on top of the water.
Living men and women were still rolling out from her
decks. Hundreds sought shelter from the heat under the
paddle-boxes, which seemed slow to burn. In there, among
the wet paddle-blades, the rescue boats were filled again and
again. six-year-old's vain CLIMB FOR LIFE.
Long after every one had given up any idea that there
was a human life in the forward part of the boat, except
those of Capt. Van Schaick and his two pilots, there was a
shout of surprise and agony on shore. A small boy — he
seemed about six years old — climbed up to the flagstaff
and began to make his way up as though to get away from
the deck, which was burning under him. He climbed a
little higher and a little higher with each jump of the
tongues of flame from below until he was almost at the
top. He was a sturdy-looking little chap, and each time
he found he had not gone enough he would shake his
yellow curls determinedly and work his way a few inches
more. It was a brave fight, but he lost it. The flagstaff
began to tremble, just as a boat was getting around in
position to get at the child. The staff fell back into the
floating furnace, and the boy with it.
LIVING BORNE PAST THE DEAD.
As fast as dead and living were brought ashore the
weaker of the convalescent patients took them and carried
them up on the lawn. There was a constantly increas
ing number of physicians comtag over from the mainland,
some of them in rowboats. Every burnt woman or child
who showed any signs of life was carried into the buildings.
The nurses' quarters and the doctors' quarters and the

24 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
stables and every place that had a roof where cots could be
erected was filled — except those in which there were con
tagious diseases.
The dead were laid out in long rows on the grass. The-
living walked or were carried by them. Heartrending rec
ognitions were there: women throwing themselves on the '
bodies of their children; children catching at their moth
ers' hands and begging them to "wake up," and scream
ing inconsolably when they realized that there would be
no waking up.
There was too much to be done at once for any list to
be kept of those who were rescued. The Eev. Mr. Haas
was pulled out of the water, into which he had fallen soon
after the Slocum beached, and found to be not very badly
injured. But it was more than an hour before he could
be found and identified.
One reason for the heavy loss of life ascribed by those
who assisted in the work of rescue was the apparent inabil
ity of all the passengers of the Slocum to swim. Scores
were drovmed within a few steps of firm footing. Not a
few were drowned who might have saved themselves by
standing up. Capt. Van Schaick and his pilots and all
the rest of his crew except Steward McGann and Chief En
gineer Conklin swam ashore without much difficulty after
they once got safely into the water away from the flames.
It is not known what happened to McGann. Other mem
bers of the crew were sure that when the divers got down
into the wreck of the Slocum they would find that Chief
Engineer Conklin would be found dead at his post, from
which he might have escaped any time, had he wanted to>
abandon the passengers to their fate.
BURNED TO THE WATER's EDGE.
When the Zophar Mills' commander was satisfied that

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 25
¦there was no more chance of saving any lives he ordered
that the buming hulk be got out of the way. With the
help of several of the other tugs she was yanked out into
the stream and floated, ablaze from stem to stern, over to
Hunt's Point, a mile away, where she grounded again and
burned to the water's edge and sank. She lies now about
half a mile from Hunt's Point on the Bronx side of the
stream and about a mile north of North Brother Island.
She lies with her yellow smokestacks tilted over to the
south and one of her big yellow paddle-boxes visible. For
the rest there is an outline of charred timbers and nothing
more. WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS ON THE DEAD.
On many of the bodies which were recovered were life
preservers which seemed to have been perfectly worthless.
Assistant District Attorney Garvan's attention was called
to a collection of tlie Slocum's life preservers which had
been made by Capt. Jack Wade, These life preservers were
covered with such flimsy, rotten stuff that they could be
ripped open by a scratch with one's thumbnail. They were
filled with ground-up cork instead of with solid chunks
which would retain their buoyancy.
The work of recovering bodies went on steadily from the
"time when all hope of saving more lives ended. Nearly a
hundred policemen, assisted by men from all the hospitals
and morgues, went out in small boats and waded out and
worked from the shore and from the decks of the tugs with
grappling-hooks, dragging up all that was left of victims
of the disaster. The bodies of some of those who were
burned were in an indescribably horrible condition.
In the rush and confusion there were many things which
in -the face of a disaster less appalling would have shocked

36 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
the sensibilities of the most hardened man who witnessed
them, such, for instance, as the sight witnessed on a trip
on a tug across to North Brother Island — a rowboat, with
two men at the oars, and a small boy, who was holding a
line by which were towed the bodies of three women, dressed
all three in flimsy white dresses. Nobody was to blame.
The boat would have been swamped with the three bodies
inside. NIGHT INCREASES THE HOREOE.
At 10:30 at night 415 corpses had been recovered and
tagged at North Brother's Island. Fifty had been recov
ered at other points. They included a dozen that had first
been landed at Oak Point. More were coming in at the
rate of twenty an hour.
The police of the harbor squad, assisted by volunteers,
were wading and rowing about the shore picking them
up with grappling-hooks. So numerous were the corpses
that early in the evening the bodies were recovered at the
rate of one a minute.
FISHING UP THE DEAD UNDEE SEARCHLIGHT.
All the boats used by the police and other workers were
equipped with lanterns. In addition lights were himg on
poles that had been stuck in the mud along the shore of the
island. The police boat Patrol stood by constantly with a
big searchlight playing on the waters. The employees of
the hospital rigged up temporary lines of incandescent
lights along the lawn to aid those at work in tabulating
and searching the bodies.
CORPSES KNOWN ONLY BY NUMBER.
As soon as the bodies were taken from the water they
were laid in groups of four each. They were first tagged

THE GENERAL SLOCUM D±SASTEE. 27
and then searched. All jewelry, papers and valuables taken
from the bodies were thrown into huge bags. Each batch
of valuables taken from a body was tagged with the num
ber corresponding to that on the body.
After the searching and tagging of the bodies had been
completed photographs were taken of the groups of four.
This was done by the use of flashlights.

FIRST PHOTOGRAPH A WOMAN AND THREE CHILDREN.
The first photograph taken was a group of four, consist
ing of a woman and three children. The bodies were
stretched out along the lawn, with the heads propped
against the wall of the scarlet fever hospital.
It was decided to send all the valuables taken from the
dead to the office of Coroner O'Gorman, at 177th street and
Third avenue.
It was at first proposed to send all bodies to the Morgue,
at Twenty-sixth street, where arrangements had beeu made
to turn the big Charities Department dock into a tempo
rary morgue, so that the bodies would then be brought
nearer to their homes and could thus be more easily iden
tified. DIVER RICE VOLUNTEERS.
At 7 o'clock at night a Merritt- Chapman ¦wrecking tug,
with full crew and three divers, reached North Brother
Island. One of these divers was John Eice, who went to
Boonton, N. J., and brought the body of Bill Hoar to the
surface, when others had failed to do so. Eice was gladly
welcomed, and joining the others in the wrecking crew, hur
ried to the charred and sunken steamer to recover the bodies
fastened in and about the -wreck. Word was sent back by

28 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
them some time later that the work would be very difficult
o-wing to a lack of light. It was also stated that the single
wrecking tug was hardly able to cope with the situation,
and Commissioner McAdoo decided to summon more help.
I! NAVY YARD SENDS A TUG.
He then telephoned to the authorities at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard asking if they would help out, and received
word back that a powerful navy tug, fitted up with search
lights, would be despatched to the scene immediately.
NAVAL EESERVK SENDS BOATS AND CREWS.
Commissioner McAdoo had already called on the First
Battalion, N. Y. Naval Eeserves, to come to his assistance.
Commander Franklin, who received the message, sent two
launches, the Oneida and Seneca, in command of Lieu
tenant Barnard and full crews made up of picked men
from the New Hampshire, lying at the foot of East Twenty-
fourth street. Commander Franklin ordered these men to
report to Commissioner McAdoo, and they did so as soon as
they reached North Brother Island.
"We are at your service,'' said Lieutenant Barnard to the
Commissioner, who met them at the landing, "and more
men v/ill be sent if needed."
One of the launches was sent to aid the harbor police in
the recovery of bodies from along the shore, and the other
was used as a ferry between the island and the foot of East
136th street. VOLUNTEERS FROM THE MAINLAND.
When Coroner O'Gorman reached North Brother Island
he was accompanied by Alderman John H. Dougherty, of

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 2!?
The Bronx, and Fireman Thomas J. Cahill, of Engine 38.
Alderman Dougherty begged to be allowed to help, and
Coroner O'Gorman put him to work along with the police
from the Harbor Squad.
It was Fireman Cahill's day off, and he volunteered his
services to Coroner O'Gorman, and was put to work with
Alderman Dougherty. As late as midnight the two men
were bringing bodies ashore.
Dr. Darlington, President of the Health Board, arrived
early in the aftemoon, and was still seen superintending
his men and hustling with his coat off at midnight. Cot-
©ner O'Gorman was also still there at that hour.
EAILEOAD FURNISHES LIGHTS.
Just as he was leaving the island, someone called Mr.
McAdoo's attention to the fact that the work in caring for
¦the dead was made doubly difiScuIt o^ndng to the lack of
proper light As soon as he was told of this the Com
missioner hurried to a telephone and called up the ofiice
of the superintendent of the Metropolitan Street Eailway.
"Will you help the City of New York out?" asked Mr.
McAdoo. "In a minute!" was the reply. 'Well, then,
send up six of those gasolene flare lights you folks use when
repairing the tracks at night," said the Commissioner.
"We ¦will send twenty-six, if you want them," said the
representative of the street railway company. Mr. McAdoo
said that six would be enough. It was just fifty minutes
later that a boat containing the requested lights reached
the island. Two were placed on the lawn, where the bodies
were being tagged. The other four were stationed along
the shore, and greatly aided the men at work in the water.
The powerful lights illuminated the faces of the dead on
the lavm most plainly.

30 THii wENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
Everybody praised the doctors, nurses and employees of
the hospital on North Brother Island. All hands there
worked unceasingly from the time the burning boat was
first seen until late at night. Then many of them, espe
cially the women, actually fell from exhaustion. Dr. Dar
lington ordered them to retire, but some insisted on
working. DIVERS COULD GET BUT FOUR BODIES OUT.
At 11 o'clock at night Diver John Eice returned from
the wrecked steamer with four bodies of children. They
had been found in the afterhold of the vessel. Eice said
that the divers had decided to make no more descents into
the wreck, as it was plain to them that their labor would
be useless.
"We searched the forward part of the boat," said Diver
Eice, "and could iind no bodies. She has settled down
¦with a crash into the middle and we couldn't explore that
part. I suppose there are a lot of bodies there, but the
¦wreckers will have to get to work before anyone can get in
•the center of the vessel.
"The working crew are going to work all night on that
part, and they say that if necessary to clear it they will
split the boat in two parts. We divers will go out in the
moming again."WATCHES STOPPED AT 10.20 AND 10.25.
The watches on all the dead recovered early in the
aftemoon had stopped at 10.20 o'clock. The watches taken
out last night had stopped at 10.25 o'clock.
Eoundsmen Klute and Giloon, of the Harbor Squad, with
a crew of men, were the first policemen to reach the bum-

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 31
ing boat. All of them were more or less burned in effect
ing rescues. Between 3 o'clock in the afternoon and 11
o'clock at night they had recovered 219 bodies. Eounds-
man Daniel Eyan with Policemen Corbett, Franklin, Pow
ers and McKeown recovered 107 bodies in the same time.
Dr. Darlington was reinforced by a large number of in
spectors from the Health Department, and they devoted
their time entirely to tagging the bodies and arranging for
their transfer to East Twenty-sixth street.
The last six were recovered from the wreck. They were
horribly burned, and came up with the wreckage torn up
by the Merritt-Chapman crew. At 12.30 o'clock there were
a total of 95 bodies left on North Brother Island. Of this
number 39 were in the hospital morgue. Of those on the
lawn 25 had been placed in coffins, and 31 were still lying
on the grass covered with blankets. All the others had
been sent to the Bast Twenty-sixth street morgue, or had
been loaded on the boat that was leaving at this time.

33 TEE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER,

CHAPTEE II. '
HORROR AT NORTH BROTHER — WOMEN SNATCH MANY LIVES
FROM THE RIVER — DOCTORS, NUESES, CONSUMPTION
PATIENTS AND POLICE IN THE .WATER SAVING LIFE 
THB HUNDREDS OF UNEECOGNIZED DEAD PHOTOGEAPHB&
AND THEIR VALUABLES, LARGE IN GROSS AMOUNT,
CARED FOR.
A HOSPITAL for the treatment of contagious diseases
would not ordinarily be the place to look for heroism of the
spectacular type, but there was enough of it shown at North
Brother to give the place a name in history. Everybody
took a hand in the rescue work — doctors, nurses, ward
helpers, engineers, health inspectors and laborers. Evea
¦the tuberculosis patients rendered splendid service when so
many of the excursionists were struggling in the water after
the buming steamer had been beached. None of the other
patients was aUowed to assist, but many of them who were
on the road to recovery volunteered, and there was much
excitement among them. It is estimated that the island
people rescued 150 persons from dro^wning.
Commissioner McAdoo, accompanied by his secretary,.
reached the island in the middle of the afternoon on board
the policeboat Patrol. At that time the lawn at the side
of the main hospital was literally covered with corpses, and
the police and others were fishing them out at the rate of
one a minute. Three dead children, all roped together with
toy horge-linee, were brought to the surface at one time^

THB GENERAL SLO'CUM DISASTEE. 33
The Commissioner shuddered and raised his hat. Next
came a woman vdth a baby clasped in her arms. The Com
missioner raised his hat again.
"It is the saddest sight I ever saw," he said. Then he
gave orders to the Merritt-Chapman Wrecking Company
to send two divers to explore the hulk of the Slocum. He
also engaged an expert photographer to make pictures of
the bodies on the island. These pictures will be passed
around among- the members of St. Mark's congregation to
facilitate identification. The Commissioner ordered the
pictures made, fearing that decomposition would set in so
quickly as to prevent identification in many cases.
Among other officials who were on the island were Com
missioner Darlington, of the Health Department; Police
Inspectors Albertson and Brooks, Coroners, O'Gorman, of
The Bronx, and Scholer, of Manhattan; Ca-ptains,
Geoghegan, of the Alexander Avenue Station, and Dean,
of the steamboat squad. An army of other officials were
there, together with doctors and nurses from nearly every
hospital, public and private, in Greater New York.
ALL HANDS TO THE EESCUE.
The first man to Bee the buming boat from the island
was James J. Oweos, a mason who was working on the
laundry building. He shouted "Steamer afire 1" and made
for the landing. As he ran he notified Chief Engineer
Gaffney, of the pumphouse, who sounded the fire alarm.
This aroused every soul on the island. When Owens
reached the landing he launched a skiff with the assistance
of Mate Johnson, of the Health Department boat, Frank
lin Edson, who was off duty. Both men got in and put
out for the burning vessel, which was rounding the point
close to shore. Owens plunged overboard and got a child.

34 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
At the next plunge he got a man and two children. By
this time the skiff was in the midst of a struggling crowd.
So many tried to get aboard that the craft was upset about
fifty feet from shore. Owens says he managed to drag six
people with him when he swam in.
In the meantime the Slocum had turned the point and
was beached. The sea wall was lined with doctors, nurses
and other hospital employees. As soon as the vessel struck
they waded out into the water and began to drag people
out. WOMEN WORK THB FIRE LADDERS.
Along the side of the scarlet fever hospital were six
35-foot fire ladders, placed there for an emergency. Door-
ley, the superintendent of outdoor labor, called for volun
teers to push these ladders into the water and operate them
as life lines. There was no response for the simple rea
son that practicaUy every able-bodied man on the island
was already in the water pulling out excursionists, dead
and alive.
Matron White, who was on the seawall with her assist
ants, sized up the situation in an instant. With her o^wn
hands she dragged one of the heavy ladders to the water
and drew it back with three persons clinging to it. The
other women then fell to, and soon aU the ladders were
working as life lines with splendid effeet. Some of the
women waded out to their waists and helped to pass the
excursionists in.
MARY M^CANN SAVED FOUR CHILDREN.
Among them was Mary MeCann, a buxom Irish girl,
who had graduated from a measles patient into a ward help
er. She has the reputation of being the most expert swim-

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 35
mer on the island.. Four times did she swim out near the
Slocum, and on each trip brought back a live child. En
gineer Gaffney also did splendid service. At first he or
dered two lines of hose stretched to the seawall and extra
pressure put on the pumps. He soon saw that these streams
were futile, and he ordered the hose abandoned.
"All overboard!" he yelled, and every man jumped.
Gaffney worked away in the water until he collapsed from
exhaustion. He was hanging on the seawaU by his fingers
when discovered, and it was some time before he recovered.
Many of those brought in by the island people were un
conscious, and some of the doctors turned their attention
to resuscitating them. Prominent in this work was Dr.
Weisman, an interne. He worked until his tongue hung
out like a dog's from fatigue.
CHASE OF A THIEF.
While Superintendent Doorley was helping to carry the
victims up to the lawn where they were laid out he spied a
taU, muscular man, who looked like a Swede, reaching for
the gold watch on a woman's breast. Doorley gave the
alarm, whereupon the big man started on a run across the
island, pursued by nurses and patients. He iinally plunged
into the water and swam to a skiff, which he' boarded. That
was the last seen of him.
GREWSOME SIGHTS AT THE LANDING.
There were corpses everywhere near the landing, many
of them mutilated and burned beyond recognition. On the
stringpiece were a bunch of bright brown hair and part of a
woman's belt.
As fast as the bodies were brought up they were searched

36 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
by the Coroners and their assistants, and tagged. At 5
o'clock Coroner O'Gorman had, in a huge basket, watches,
jewelry, cash and bank books representing an estimated
value of $180,000. One of the corpses was that of a com
fortably dressed, middle-aged woman, who wore an old-
fashioned bustle. In it were found about twenty books on
savings banks, showing deposits of nearly $40,000. The
books were made out in the name of Eva Krengei*.
¦When the steamboats Massasoit and Fidelity had been
loaded to their capacity with corpses for the Bellevue
Morgue, temporary morgues were established in the old
brick coal shed, in the disinfecting plant and in the old
drag store. These were also soon filled, and at 6 o'clock
there were at least 100 corpses still on the lawn. AU after
noon and far into the night policemen toiled in the water
and in boats, hauling up bodies with hooks and dragging
and carrying them ashore. POLICE RESCUES.
Policeman Giek, of the Alexander Avenue Station, was
at the foot of 138th street with Louis Eiegel, an old life-
saver, when the burning boat hove in sight. Eiegel pulled
in two women and a child who had jumped overboard.
Policeman Herbert C. FarreU, a model man, and Police
man James Collins, of the Alexander Avenue Station, are
also listed among the heroes of the day. With Olaf Jen
sen, master of the sloop Baylis, they put out in a yawl for,
the Slocum. The heat was so intense that they were forced
to go under the paddle-box. The burning boat was drifting
then, and many were clinging to the blades of the wheel.
The policemen took 24 persons aboard, of whom 16 were
dead. Among those saved was J. Elliot, of 219 East Thir
teenth street, who was clinging to the paddles with two
small children hanging to his neck.

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THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 39^
The first launch to reach the Slocum was the Kills, of
the Dock Department. Captain Halloran got a medal from
Congress when he was in the life-saving service. The
launch was off 138th street when the burning boat was
sighted. She put out and took on board 18 alive and 21
dead. TWO OP A PARTY OF FIFTEEN FROM HOBOKEN SAFE.
One of the largest family parties aboard the Slocum came
from Hoboken. Most of the people in it were related
closely to each other, and had been formerly members of
St. Mark's Church. The party was accompanied to the boat
in the morning by Mr. Fulling, a paper manufacturer, of
53 Crosby street, this city. In the afternoon he went to
North Brother Island in search of the excursionists. He
was accompanied by Otto E. Erklin, a coal merchant, of 1
Broadway, and Henry Klenan, a son of Mrs. Meta Klenan.
They were nearly frantic with grief, and besought the re
porters for news of the lost ones. They were told before
they left that Louise Garling, the nurse, was safe, and that
she had rescued Mrs. Brklin's two-months-old baby.
Among the people who had miraculous escapes were
Florence Weiss of 507 East Eighty-seventh street and Mrs.
Nicholas Schumacher of 529 East Eighty-second street.
Some one threw them from the Slocum upon a tug, and
dozens of others came tumbling down on top of them.
They were not hurt. They said the boat burned like a
paper box.
Minnie Weiss, 13 years old, of 1235 Third avenue, was
on the bow of the excursion steamer. She saw smoke and
then a tongue of flame eating its way along the top deck
toward where she stood. The crowd made a rush forward.
She climbed do^wn the side and got to the first deck, where

40 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
there was no fire. She jumped into the water and caught
hold of a woman who had a little boy in her arms. A
rope was thrown to them from the Massasoit and they were
dragged on board. Minnie was with her mother, Mrs. Otto
Weiss, and her brother, George, who was 15 years old. She
thinks that both were lost.
George Kirschner, 13 years old, of 18 Eussell street,
jumped from the Slocum and swam ashore. His mother,
brother, sister, grandfather and two cousins were with him.
He said he thought they were all lost.

STOEIES THE SUEVIVOES TELL.

FAMILIES PARTED IN THE RUSH BEFORE THB FLAMES.
Herman Lembeck, 14 years old, of 14 East Ninth street,
was picked up by the launch Kills and brought to Eiker's
Island. "I was with my mother, two brothers and two sisters
on the hurricane deck," thegboy said. "We saw a lot of
smoke and fiames coming from below and mother got
scared. Just then Dr. Haas, the minister, came running up
to us. He said it was nothing but some coffee burning
and begged us to be calm.
"He then went off looking for his own family. We all
stood holding on to mother and then the deck broke under
neath us. I lost hold of mother and fell into the water..
When I came up I saw my sister Dora hanging on to the
paddle-wheel. I looked for her after I was picked up, but
she had gone."

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 41
Freda Gardiner was one of a number of children res
cued by a rowboat off East 138th street. She had been
with her aunt on the main deck.
"We were all laughing," said the child, "because my
aunt had said she was afraid on such a big boat. When
the first cry of fire came. Aunt Louise told me to hold onto
her hand, but the crowd came rushing at us and swept
her away from me. A big man picked me up in his arms
and held me in front of him, but he couldn't keep his
feet. "I fell over the rail, and when I came up I grabbed a
big piece of timber. A man in the water tried to grab-
hold of me and when he missed me I eaw him go down.
The rowboat came up just as I was about to let go the log,
I was so weak."
SWAM ashore; ALL HIS FAMILY LOST.
George Kircher swam ashore to Eiker's Island. He told
those on the island that his mother, brother, sister, aunt
and grandfather had been with him on the boat, and they
had been drowned, he thought.
"We had seats along the rail on tlie top deck," the boy
said, "and we stayed together for a long time, hoping that
some boat would come and take us off. The fiames started
in the front of the boat, and that made the crowd come
toward us. It was awful to see them. I saw little chil
dren trampled on.
"Everybody was making for the back of the boat, and
behind them seemed to be a big wave of fiame. As the
crowd from the front got to where we were the railing burst
into flame, and then I had to jump. Just as I jumped part
of the deck gave way and I saw the people tumbling down
into the water through a big hole in the deck."

42 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
The boy went around the island for hours searching for
his, relatives and sobbing.
ONLY ONE OF NINE CAME BACK.
Nine persons from the tenement 54 Seventh street, in
the rear of St. Mark's Church, none of them members of
the eongregation, went with the excursion. Only one came
back. Mrs. Lena De Luccia, who lives on the top floor front,
took her four children, ranging in age from two and a
half years to twelve, for the sake of the sail. She per
suaded her neighbor across the hall, a young married
woman named Sophie Siegel, to join the party. Yester
day morning Mrs. Galefsky, on the floor below, decided
to go, too, and took her two young children.
Mrs. De Luccia was the only one who returned. Her
hands and arms were horribly burned. She and her chil
dren, she said, were all together on the main deck, near-
the wheel-box, when she saw the smoke and flames for
ward. She picked up her baby and, with her other chil
dren, crowded to the rail. Men went around, she says,
shouting that there was no danger.
Next she remembers a wave of frenzied women and chil
dren forced her overboard. She lost her baby and saw no.
more of her other children. Mrs. Siegel struck the water
alongside of her, but she did not see her come to the
surface. The Slocum's engines had stopped and Mrs. De Luccia
climg to a paddle-blade. As the superstructure burned,
the iron got so hot that it blistered her hands. Then a
rowboat picked her up.
FIVE LITTLE GIELS WHO WEEB SA^VED.
Five little girls from the Slocum who boarded a Third

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 43
avenue train at Eighty-fourth street, attracted at
tention by their attire. They all wore dresses too little or
too big, and the faces of some were tear-stained.
A customs inspector, who sat beside one of the girls, who
had a big black and blue lump on the left side of her
forehead, and two fingers done up in splints, learned from
her that she was Katie Kaffenberger of 436 Sixth street.
She is an only child and she was going home to her
mother. "I jumped from the top of the steamboat into a tug,"
she said. "I was hurt by lots of people who jumped on
me and on other little girls who jumped when I did. - 1
am glad I have only a few little hurts. I saw a great
many jump and fall overboard, and I know there must be a
lot dro^wned."
Another little girl in the party was Louise Motzer, nine
years old. As they were going home after getting off the
elevated trajn at Ninth street a big man came up to them,
and, peering into the face of Louise, said: "Are you
Motzer ?"
Louisa, who was somewhat startled by the big man's
earnestness, said she was, and he grabbed her up and ran
off with her, not stopping until he reached the saloon of
her father and deposited Louisa in his arms.
Louisa said she had become separated from her mother
i and her little sister, Lena, four years old, and that she
had failed to find them at the hospital after she got ashore.
They were not home when Louisa got there, and Mr. Mot
zer decided that they were among the lost.
woman's JUMP FEOM SECOND DECK.
One of the injured in the Harlem Hospital is Mrs. Nel
lie Kessebaum of 196 Guernsey street, Brooklyn. She was

'4A THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
saved because she had nerve enough to jump from the sec
ond deck of the Slocum to the deck of a tugboat.
She was standing at the forward end of the boat, with
the fiames working toward her. She had almost given up
hope, when a tugboat came along.
As the tug neared the steamer's side she leaned over
the rail, poised herself a moment, and then jumped. She
landed on the deck of the tugboat, where some of the "rew
were waiting for the jump. Later she was landed on North
Brother Island, where she was cared for until she was
taken away in the ambulance.
John Halphusen, the sexton of the church, who is 70
years old, and was rescued by a tug, says that in his.
opinion the crew of the General Slocum was undisciplined
and did not know how to use a hose. He was standing,
¦srith Dr. Haas and his family, aft on the main deck, when
the fire was discovered. PRAISE FOR DR. HAAS'' BRAVERY.
Dr. Haas, according to the sexton, conducted himself
most bravely and worked in an unsuccessful effort to close
the hatch doors until he was blinded with the smoke and
heat. Then he returned to his wife and daughter, but lost
them in the excitement.
Halphusen had his two daughters on board also. All
these clung to the paddle-wheel until they were picked up; ¦
by the tug Sumner.
The twin sons of John C. Heins, George and Theodore,.
15 years old, of 344 East Fourth street, were among the
rescued. They were on the boat with their mother and
their younger brother, Frank, whose leg had been broken
and was in a plaster cast.
First George jumped from the upper deck. As he struck

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 45
the water a woman landed on him and partly stunned him.
Theodore also jumped. Both boys are crack swimmers.
George was picked up by a tug and Theodore swam to
Eandall's Island. They met at home six hours later. Their
mother also was there. She jumped overboard and clung
to the paddle-wheel, at the same time supporting another
woman, who was finally taken from her by a negro, a
member of the crew.
Frank, the brother with a broken leg, is still missing.

46 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.

CHAPTEE III.
The following are facts and incidents as collected by
another ¦writer:
The swift and terrible destruction of human life in the
burning of the General Slocum created intense excitement
in the city and led to widespread expressions of horror and
sympathy. Many found in the fact that nearly all of the
victims of the disaster were women and children addi
tional cause for sorrow.
One reason for the extent of the disaster was the panic
which prevented the use of the steamer's lifeboats or any
considerable use of the life preservers on the boat. Hun
dreds of women and children, panic-stricken by the rapid
spread of the fiames while the steamboat was running two
miles for a landing place, crowded other hundreds over
board before life preservers could be adjusted.
MORE THAN 1,500 ABOARD.
When the steamboat General Slocum left her pier at
Third street to carry an excursion crowd of the Sunday
School of St. Mark's Lutheran Church of No. 323 Sixth
street, near First avenue, to Locust Grove, Long Island,
982 tickets to the excursion were taken up. As more than
one child had been admitted on a single ticket, however, in
many cases, there were known to be more than fifteen hun
dred members of the excursion aboard. There were in ad
dition twenty-three members of the crew, a,bout a dozen

-Ji

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 47
waiters and some musicians. Capt. William H. Van
Schaick, an experienced and old-time excursion boat com
mander, was in command of the General Slocum.
The steamboat stopped at Twenty-third street at 9 a. m.
long enough to take aboard a few more passengers. Moat
of the women and children on the boat were on the main
deck and hurricane deck, enjoying themselves under the
kindly eye of their pastor, the Eev. George C. F. Haas,
when the disaster overtook them. From the stories of sur
vivors the first sign of fire seems to have been noticed as
the vessel was passing the Sunken Meadows, off 122d street.
THEORIES AS TO ORIGIN.
Accounts differ as to just where the fire started, some
declaring it had its origin in the forecastle, on the main
deck, while others, the latter being in the majority, say it
started in the boiler room almost amidships. The origin
of the fire is also a matter of uncertainty. It was said by
several men who were passengers on the boat that a care
less bootblack left some oily rags near a vessel filled with.
benzine or oil, whether in the forecastle or boiler room they
could not say, and that spontaneous combustion started the
blaze that had such disastrous results. Still another ver
sion was that a pan of grease boiled over in the kitchen
of a lunchroom on the forward part of the freight deck and
started the blaze.
The fiames spread with great rapidity. Some of the
crew said after the disaster that they tried to get water on
the flames, and' found that the pumps would not work.
Some of the survivors say that the crew became demoral
ized from the start, and did little except save themselves.
The panic spread as fast as the flames.
Capt. Van Schaick was in the pilot-house with Edward

48 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
ll. Van Wart, the pilot. He says that as soon as Jie
was apprised of the fact that the boat was on fire he gave
the signal to the crew to report to quarters and fight the
fiames. The captain at first thought he might beach his
vessel on the Stmken Meadows, where the ill-fated Sewan-
haka was destroyed by fire in 1880. He found, however,
he says, that the wind was blowing in a direction that
would cause the fire to spread more quickly if he attempted
to reach the Meadows. He therefore signaled the engineer
to put on all steam, while he headed the buming boat for
North Brother Island, the nearest available place for run-
ing her ashore.
The speed of the boat fanned the flames, sending them
roaring along the lower deck. Clouds of smoke almost
shut the upper decks from view. Hundreds of women and
children on those decks began to rush toward the stern
of the boat. They became insane with terror as the panic
increased. The crush forced many helpless people ^igainst
the railings of the decks with such force that the stanch
ions were broken and the railings were swept away.
SWEPT INTO THE WATER.
Then from the decks hundreds of women and childrea
were swept into the water, some falling on one another and
sinking together to drown before any help could reach
them. Capt. Van Schaick was keeping the whistle of the .
General Slocum going to attract the attention of other
boats, and several boats within sight started toward her
at full speed. In the race some of the boats picked up
people in the water.
In the race for the buming steamer people on the tug
boat Easy Times saw two other boats decline assistance.
Capt. Churchill says he saw the ferryboat Bronx stop on her

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 49
run to North Beach long enough to allow the General
Slocum to pass her bow, and then continue on her trip with
out attempting to save any of the people who were faUing
overboard from the steamboat. The ferryboat people, how
ever, deny this. A private yacht, the name of which
was not discerned, drew out of the way of the burning
steamboat and lowered a launch. Two men got into the
launch from the yacht. Instead of making for the General
Slocum, however, the launch carried the men to The Bronx
shore, while the yacht continued on her way to the Sound.
Most of the boats which joined in the work of rescue
could not get near the General Slocum until she ran
aground off the north shore of North Brother Island.
Among the boats that hurried to the succor of the stricken
passengers were several tugs of the New York Central Eail-
road Company, the Health Department tug Franklin Ed
son, and the Charities Department boat Massasoit. These
and several rowboats manned by willing hands approached
as near the blazing steamboat as was possible and rescued
scores of people. Most of these were picked out of the
water after they had dropped over the side of the General
Slocum. The Franklin Edson went up so close to the
burning steamer that her own paint was scorched. The
crew of the tug, however, stuck bravely to their task and
snatched many women and children from a terrible death.
DECKS CAVE IN.
A strong flood-tide was running when the General Slo
cum went aground on some rocks nearly 100 feet from the
shore of North Brother Island. As she struck the rocks
her hurricane deck, on which many of the panic-stricken
women and children were clinging, suddenly caved in, pre
cipitating its human freight either into the blazing hold

50 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
or into the water. The water around the flaming vessel was
thick with dro"WQing people, and, notwithstanding the al
most superhuman efforts made by the rescuers, a large
number of the perishing people had to be left to their fate.
Many of those who jumped into the water or were precipi
tated over the side of the vessel when the hurricane deck
collapsed were on fire from head to foot and they escaped
one form of death only to meet another more merciful. .
A man who is serving a two months' term on Black-
well's Island for some petty offence, and who was detailed
as a "trusty" on the Charities Department boat Massa
soit, proved that he had good stuff in him when the emer
gency arose. He was George Dennis, and when he saw
people struggling in the water around the burning boat he
jumped overboard and saved a woman's life. Then, with
his clothing soaking wet, he returned to his work on the
Massasoit. His bravery will be called to the attention of
the proper authorities, and it is probable that he will be
restored to liberty as a reward.
A woman's RESCUE WORK.
Mary McCann, a buxom young Irish girl, 17 years old,
who has not been long in this country, and who is working
as a ward-helper on North Brother Island, also distin
guished herself in the work of rescue. With more than a
score of nurses she ran to the water's edge, near the strand
ed vessel, and plunging in, swam to the stern of the boat
and brought ashore a woman whom she found clinging to
the rudder. She returned three or four times, each time .
rescuing some person.
Eemarkable was the heroism of Mrs. Allen, a work
woman employed on North Brother Island, who leaped
from the pier and rescued two women, who were struggling

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 51
in the water. Another woman rescuer was Pauline Puetz,
a waitress employed on North Brother Island. At the
risk of her life she saved five children from drowning.
Miss Puetz made an enviable record at Asbury Park as a
life-saver. Miss Lulu McGibbon, a telephone operator on the isl
and, after telephoning the Police Department for assist
ance, ran to the beach and helped in the work of rescue and
resuscitation. Among those she dragged from the water
alive were two infants, 3 and 6 months old respectively.
Twenty-four nurses on duty in the hospital on the isl
and did creditable work, under the leadership of Mrs. K.
L. White, the matron. These women waded into the river
up to their necks, and each one of them saved from four
to six lives. Then, with their clotliing dripping wet, and
in spite of a chilly wind that was sweeping across the
island, they went to work to resuscitate the half-drowned
passengers or to assist the doctors in attending to the
wounded. The fireboat Zophar Mills, responding to a call, stopped
long enough at the 138th street dock to take aboard a squad
of police and an engine companj'-, and she reached the burn
ing steamboat soon after the General Slocum was aground.
Most of the policemen and firemen promptly jumped over
board and began rescuing people from the water. Several
bodies they took out were lifeless.
LEAVE PATIENTS FOR THE RESCUE.
Physicians, nurses and helpers had run from the pavil
ions on the island, deserting for the time the patients suf
fering from contagious diseases to join in the work of res
cue. Several of the women nurses helped save lives by
running ladders down into the water from a stone pier.

-52 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Many acts of bravery and self-sacrifice were recorded.
One girl, scarcely more than a child, rescued a baby. The
heroine was Louise Galling, 12 years old, of Nutley, N. J.
She had gone on the excursion with Mrs. Gertrude Erkling,
and in the excitement following the discovery of fire had
become separated from Mrs. Erkling and left with the
latter's 2-year-old baby in her arms on the hurricane deck.
The little girl did not lose her presence of mind, nothwith-
standing the fearful scenes that were being enacted before
her. She managed to get possession of a life preserver,
which, unaided, she adjusted about her body; then, with
the baby in her arms, she went to the extreme end of
ihe boat and waited as long as she could before plunging
into the river. Finally the fiames and smoke were swirling
about her and she leaped over the rail into the water twenty
feet below. As she disappeared beneath the surface she .
clung tightly to her infant charge, and still had the baby
in her arms when she arose again. Beside her, struggling
in the water, was a man in uniform, one of the officers
¦of the steamer. He told her to place one arm about him,
that he would hold her up until help came. She obeyed,
¦but still clung to her helpless little friend. In about five
minutes they were picked up by somebody in a rowboat and
taken ashore. The brave little girl and the baby whose life
she had saved were treated in one of the hospital wards
on North Brother Island.
Another instance of childish heroism was that of. Lucy
Bencken, a fifteen-year-old girl, of No. 162 South Second
street, Brooklyn. She was with her mother, Mrs. Lucy
Hencken, and her brother Charles, 19 years old. When
the fire started she took her mother to the hurricane deck,
helieving that to be the safest place, and, leaving her there,
went in search of her brother. On her way downstairs she
found three babies lying on the floor at the foot of the

n H>
§

O
Htel»tel

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 55
companionway and in danger of being trampled on by the
people who were running around on the maia. deck. She
carried the babies one by one to her mother, in whose charge
she placed them, while she again went in search of her
brother, whom she saw in the midst of an excited crowd
of people on the main deck. Before she could reach him
a cloud of smoke, pierced by flame, intervened, and she
was forced to retreat to the upper deck. When she got
there she could not find her mother or the three babies, and,
being unable to stay any longer on the burning boat, she
jumped overboard. She was rescued by William Major,
of the tugboat Theo.
LAWNS LIKE A BATTLEFIELD.
The lawns on the north shore of North Brother Island
soon looked like a battlefield after a battle. They were
nearly covered with bodies which were taken from the
water, and with persons who had been rescued' and were
being prepared for removal to the hospitals.
Health Commissioner Darlington called aU the physi
cians of the Health Department available to the island,
and kept them at work there the rest of the day. More
than three hundred police were sent to the island to work
under the direction of Inspector Albertson. Coroners
O'Gorman and Scholer soon began the task of examining
the bodies removed from the water. As rapidly as possible
the persons who were to be sent to hospitals were removed
in boats.
¦While the work of rescue was stiU in progress, the burn
ing General Slocum was raised by the tide until she fioated
from the rocks and began to drift in the direction -of Eiker's
Island. Several of the boats which were engaged in rescue
work foUowed her until she sank, off Hunt's Point. Be-

56 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
fore she went down the rescuers could see many charred
bodies of women and children who had been burned to
death. Captain Van Schaick and his pilot jumped overboard as
soon as the General Slocum grounded. Both were burned
severely before they jumped, but they were able to get
ashore. Most' of the members of the crew had jumped
overboard sooner. There was a report that the engineer
had been burned at his post of duty, but it was learned
later that he had jumped overboard and had been rescued.
Peter Jensen, who owns a naphtha launch, was coming
out of Little Hell Gate to tlie East Eiver when the blazing
Slocum passed that point on her way east. Jensen followed
with his launch, and the moment he was able he ran her
up to the starboard paddle-box and snatched from certain
death a little girl and two little boys. Although burned
himself while making this rescue, he ran his boat to the
beach, landed the children, and then, dropping flat on
his face on top of the seawall, pulled forty persons out of
the water. AN UNKNOWN HERO.
A man, whose identity could not be learned, showed him
self to be a hero. He was seen on the starboard paddle-
box of the General Slocum, surrounded by a group of
women and children. Tug No. 7, of the New York Cen
tral Eailroad, braving the smoke and flames, ran up along
side the burning steamer, and the man on the paddle-box
passed the women and children down to the crew of the tug.
The clothing of some of the passengers was burning, and
the hero's own garments were on fire by the time he had
handed the last person to safety. He was then forced to
jump into the river and swim ashore.

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 57

SWIFT EECOVEEY OF BODIES.
Many small boats were manned by the police after the
' General Slocum drifted away from the shore, and the task
of dragging for bodies was begun. In the afternoon the
recovery of bodies was rapid. For two hours at one time
in the afternoon the bodies were being recovered at the
rate of one a minute.
Of the bodies recovered before noon 37 were taken to the
police station at Alexander avenue and 138th street, about
which large crowds gathered. Later, the Charities boat
carried two loads to the morgue at Twenty-sixth street.
When 130 bodies had been carried to the morgue and
•Coroner O'Gorman was told that no more could be accom
modated there, he turned an old coalshed on North Brother
Island into an impromptu morgue, being aided by Dr.
Darlington. On a platform over blocks of ice were placed as many
of the bodies as could be accommodated. It was first de
cided that relatives desiring to identify their friends would
be allowed to come on.the island for this purpose, but when
the impromptu morgue became crowded, and more than
two hundred bodies were still on the lawns, it was arranged
that the bodies should be taken to the East Twenty-sixth
street pier, where another large morgue had been impro
vised. To facilitate the work of removing bodies at night.
Police Commissioner McAdoo, who went to the island, bor
rowed some cluster lights from the Metropolitan Street
Eailway Company. These were to be placed on the la^wns
where- the bodies lay. Mr. McAdoo also made arrange
ments to have the bodies of the dead photographed.
At a late hour in the afternoon it was found that over
three hundred bodies had been taken ashore at North Broth-

58 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
er Island, and were still being recovered at the rate of one
a minute. The lawns on the north side of the island
seemed covered with bodies, most of which were those of
women and children, and some of them charred beyond
recognition. One girl, about 16 years old, clasped tightly
in her clenched hands the body of a child apparently six
months old. Presumably they were sisters.
OFFICEES OF THE SLOCUM AEEESTBD.
Seven men, including all the officers saved from the
General Slocum, were placed under arrest as soon as the
police found them, and as they were aU more or less injured,
either by burns or shock, they were sent to the Lebanon
Hospital as prisoners. They were Capt. William H. Van
Schaick, 60 years old, who said he lived on the steamer;
First Pilot Edward Van Wart, 64 years old, of No. 331
West TVenty-first street; Second Pilot Edwin N. Weaver,
26 years old, who lived on the steamer; William W. Tremb-
ley, 33 years old, of California, who lived on the boat;
Henry Canfield, 46 years old, of No. 421 Tenth avenue, a
cook on the boat; Edwin Eobinson, 19, also a cook, of No.
414 West 39th street, and James Woods, 45 years old, a
cook, of No. 337 Ninth avenue.
The officers missing are Michael McGrann, Steward;
Edward Flanagan, Mate, and B. F. Conklin, Engineer.

THjil vjENBRAL slocum DISASTER. 59

CHAPTEE IV. j
SCENES AND INCIDENTS BY ANOTHER WRITER — SCENES OF
HORROE WHEN STEAMER BUENBD.
It was a spectacle of horror beyond words to express — a
great vessel all in flames, sweeping forward in the sunlight,
¦within sight of the crowded city, while her helpless, scream
ing hundreds were roasted alive or swallowed up in the
waves — women and chUdren with their hair and clothing
on fire; crazed mothers casting their babies overboard or
leaping with them to certain death; wailing children and
old men trampled under foot or crowded over into the
water — and the burning steamboat, her whistle roaring for
assistance, speeding on for the shore of North Brother
Island with a trail of ghastly faces and clutching hands
in the tide behind her — grayhaired mothers and tender in
fants going down to death together.
The captain of the steamer has been arrested; there are
stories of rotten life preservers and of life preservers placed
out of reach; of the failure of the crew to fight the fire;
and of the captain's mistake in not heading for the nearest
land. But few know exactly what happened in that terri
ble scene of suffering and death, for many of the sur
vivors are practicaUy insane, and hundreds of others are
in the hospitals. EXCURSIONISTS THRONG TO STEAMER.
It was a few minutes before 10 a. m. when the General
Slocum left the recreation pier at the foot of East Third

60 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
street, with the Sunday School scholars and members of
the congregation of St. Mark's German Lutheran Church,
on Sixth street, between First and Second avenues. The
excursionists belonged to the respectable German-Ameri
can families of the East Side.
Hundreds of them had met near the church earlier in
the morning, and with the Eev. George C. F. Haas, the
pastor of St. Mark's, at their head, had marched to the
pier, the children waving flags and the mothers carrying
lunch baskets full of good things. The band was on the
after-deck of the boat playing merry tunes, and from every
flagstaff ou the General Slocum streamed gay-colored
bunting. The sun shone brightly, and the crisp, cool air
gave a splendid promise of a happy day for the church
people. NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO TICKETS WERE SOLD.
Wlien the lines were at last cast off and the go-ahead bell
rang in the engine-room, one of the deck hands went up
to the pilot-house and reported to the captain, William Van
Schaick, that 982 tickets had been taken in at the gang
plank. This represented the adult passengers and the chil
dren over nine and ten years of age. In addition to these,
it was estimated that there were about 300 babies and young
children who did not require tickets. There were also on
board the ship's regular crew of 23 men, the employees of
the caterer, numbering about 15 men, and the members of
the band, numbering 10. In all, it was estimated that
there were almost 1,500 people on the boat.
When the boat reached a point opposite Ninety-seventh
street several of the crew who were on the lower deck saw
puffs of smoke coming through the seams in the flooring
immediately above what is called the second cabin. The

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 61
forward part of the hold of the General Slocum was divided
in this way: In the extreme bow was the forecastle. Im
mediately aft the forecastle is what is called a second cabin.
In the second cabin was a dynamo, the electric appliances
and a number of stores, including the ship's lamps and the
oil used to fill ¦them. Nobody was in the second cabin, so
far as could be learned, when the fire started. The negro
porter, Walter Payne, who had charge of the lamps, said
that he had attended to the lamps early in the morning, and
that he was confident nobody was in the second cabin.
PASSENGERS ON UPPER DECKS.
Nearly aU of the excursionists were on the two upper
decks at the time the first puffs of smoke were seen. The
band had taken up a position on the middle deck, and most
of the excursionists were sitting around it. A large num
ber of the children were on the top, or hurricane deck.
There were two policemen on the boat who had been de
tailed to take care of the crowd — Charles Kelk and Abel
E. Van Tassel, both of the Forty-second, or Harbor Police
Precinct. A few minutes after the boat had left the dock a num
ber of the children began to romp on the hurricane deck,
and one of the boat's crew asked Patrolman Kelk to go up
there and keep them in order. Van Tassel remained on
the lower deck. It was just 10.10 A. m. when the first
puffs of smoke were seen.
For some reason the fact was not communicated imme
diately to Captain Van Schaick. Some of the deck hands
went below and ran into the second cabin, believing they
could easily extinguish the fire. They found the place a
furnace. Some of the deadlights had been left open and through

62 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
these the wind had fanned an insignificant fire into a blaze
that could not be conquered. When the deck hands rushed
up and told Mate Edward Flanagan of the blaze below, he
directed that the fire apparatus of the General Slocum be
put into working order. Word was also sent to Captain
Van Schaick. FLAMES EAT THROUGH DECK.
In the pilot-house with the captain at the time was the
chief pilot, Edward Van Wart; the second pilot, Edwin
Weaver, was walking about the deck, and the chief engin
eer, Conklin, was below. Before anything effective could
be done ¦with the fire apparatus the flames had eaten their
way through the flooring of the main deck and the smoke
began to ascend in great clouds. By this time the boat
was well above Ward's Island.
Why Captain Van Schaick did not at once head the Gen
eral Slocum toward some of the docks on either the New
York or the Long Island shores has not yet been explained.
He signaled to Conklin to go ahead at full speed and
pointed her bow toward North Brother Island, which was a
good mile ahead of him. The wind was blowing from the
north, and the swift progress of the steamboat caused a
strong current of air, which drove the fiames aft into the
faces of the passengers.
At the first cry of fire the excursionists became panic-
stricken. All, of those on the lower deck fled to the middle
deck and then to the hurricane deck. Mothers ran about
the boat to find their little children and get them to a place
of supposed safety. The crew for a time did nothing but
fight the fire, which engaged all of their attention. Within
a few minutes nearly every one of the excursionists was
crowded on the aft part of the second deck and the aft
part of the hurricane deck. The band made a feeble effort

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 63
to allay the panic by playing popular airs, but the musicians
soon became choked ¦with the smoke and were forced to
give up the attempt.
MANY LIFE PRESERVERS USELESS.
There the scene was one of terrible confusion. Shrieking
women, with little children clustering about them, were
trying to get life preservers and fasten them upon their
little ones. The men on the boat did their best to help
with the life preservers. These, however, proved in a
majority of instances to be death traps. Most of the life
preservers were so old that their canvas covering was rotten
and their fastenings worthless.
Jacob Miller, an officer of the Sunday School, tried seven
different life preservers before he found one whose fastening
did not crumble and break when he put it about a mother
of several small children. Other passengers had the same
experience. When the boat had reached a point opposite 132d street
the flames were shooting up eight and ten feet at the bow of
the vessel, and the heat was so great that everybody was
pushing and fighting to get as far aft as possible.
Little children were thrown down and trampled upon in
the terrific crush. Mothers, with three and four small
children to care for, were helpless. Policeman Kelk, com
ing on the deck, did everything possible to restrain the
panic, but his efforts were in vain. Van Tassel went up
on the second deck and tried to calm the people there, but
his work was useless.
Men working along the docks on both the New York and
Long Island shores saw the flame-swept boat ¦with its crowd
of shrieking passengers steaming up the river. Alarms
were sent in to Police Headquarters and Fire Headquarters

64 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
from many sources. Tugs, launches and other boats put
after the steamer, but she left them far astern.
There were some few passengers who had taken seats in
the extreme bow of the boat when she left her pier, and
these were shut off from the stern by a barrier of
flame. The flre was buming aft all the time. The heat
became terrific, and those in the bow, hemmed in, were in
a hopeless condition. LEAPED FROM THE STEAMER's BOW.
Just as the boat was opposite 133d street a man whose
face was fearfuUy scorched and whose clothing was smok
ing jumped over the portside, and a minute later shrieked
as the big paddle-wheel caught and mangled him.
The fate of this man did not deter others from foUo^wing
his example. By two and threes the unfortunates penned
in at the bow climbed over the side and leaped into the
river. Not one of these unfortunates, so far as could be learned,
escaped death. AU, it is believed, were caught in the pad
dle-wheels and killed. Later in the aftemoon the bodies
of a number of the excursionists were washed ashore oppo
site the point at which they had jumped overboard.
One boy about twelve years old, who had been in the
crowd penned up in the bow, climbed the long flagstaff at j
the bow of the boat. He hung there notwithstanding the'-
intense heat until the Slocum was finally beached, only to
drop into the furnace below him when rescuers were near
at hand.
When the boat was opposite 140th street, the flames had
reached amidships, and the hundreds massed together were
literally being baked to death, so fearful was the heat. .
Men, women and children had climbed over the guard rails

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 65
suftd ¦were hanging on, their feet resting on the inch or two
of dfeek that protruded beyond the rails.
STEAMER^'S RAIL GI^VES WAY. i
Suddenly there was a terrific crash and the rail of the j
middle deck gave way under the pressure of the panic-
stricken throng. Those on the outside were thrown into
the water, and many close to the rail were forced overboard.;
Nearly all of these unfortunates were never seen again after
they struck the water.
The fieet of tugboats and launches chasing the Sloeuiai
stopped to pick up those who were still afloat, but not one
in ten was saved.
The ferryboat, Bronx, which runs to North Beach from
133d street, passed -within 200 yards of the burning boat^
The unfortunates on the Slocum screamed and shouted,
but the Bronx never changed her course. Even had she
done so, the slow-moving ferryboat could not have caught
np -with the steamer.
From that point on women and children dropped fromo
•the Slocum in pitiful little clusters of three, four and five
at a time. Eowboats put out from the New York shore,,
but long before they reached the course of the Slocum these
unfortunates had disappeared under the surface.
From North Brother Island the burning Slocum was j
sighted when she was down opposite 132d street, and the i
people on the island thought her captain would beach her
on the westerly shore. Dr. Samuel Watson, who is ini
charge on the island, and his assistant. Dr. Cannon, were
notified of the coming of the steamer by the engineer, Jo
seph Gaffney. George Doorley, superintendent of the island;,
was ordered to get the fire apparatus in working order.
There are 164 persons employed on the island, of whom

M. THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
35 are nurses and six are doctors. Dr. Watson placed
monitors at the doors of buildings where victims of con
tagious diseases are confined to keep the patients quiet.
Practically every other person but these monitors was sent
I -^ver to the westerly shore.
' E'VEEY WHISTLE TOOTS AN ALAEM.
Lines of hose were run out and the engines started to
pump water through them. The fire whistle on the island
was blo^wn to notify those on shore to summon help. Every
factory along the water front on both shores and every
steamboat in the river tooted its whistle continuously as an
alarm. At the stern of the Slocum were the Department of Cor
rection boat Massasoit, the tugs Wade, Theo, William H.
Gautier, Wheeler, Tracy and Sumner, the steam launch'
Mosquito, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford
tug No. 14. The Wade had been lying at the pier at North
Brother Island, and her captain, John L. Wade, had headed
into the stream the minute he saw the flame-swept boat
approaching. The Franklin Edson, the Health Depart
ment boat, also followed the Slocum.
It was just 10.20 A. M. when the Slocum was beached at
North Brother Island. She struck just a few yards north
of the scarlet fever ward and close to the little chapel which
is jointly used by the Eoman Catholic and Protestant Epis
copal churches. When she struck, the bow was in about
four feet of water, but her stern, where all the unfortunates
were, was in thirty feet of water.
Captain Van Schaick and Pilot Van Wart were in the
pilot-house when she was beached. They had remained at
their posts at the wheel, though the pilot-house was just
above the hottest part of the ship, and the flames were shoot
ing up all around them.

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 67
The instant the boat struck half of the passengers, think
ing they were in shallow water, jumped overboard. Scores
Df them never came to the surface again,
HURRICANE DECK FALLS.
When the boat was beached the most terrible catastro
phe of all happened. The stanchion supporting the hurri
cane deck gave way under the great weight of the people
above and the whole top deck coUapsed, hurling hundreds
downward. Scores of these fell into the midst of the
roaring furnace and were never heard of again. Some were
thrown outward by the collapse and fell into the water.
How many met death by being thrown into the fire by
the collapse of the deck will perhaps never be known. Many
of them must have burned in an instant, and as the boat
later sank it is doubtful if what was left of them by the
fiames will ever be recovered.
Brave men on the shore and on the boats which speedily
came to the rescue jumped into the water, and then be
gan the battle to save the drowning. Dozens of those who
jumped from the Slocum and who could swim or were
helped by other swimmers reached the big paddle-wheels.
There they fought for a few inches of space on the blades
where they might cling until rescuers could reach them.
Others clung to camp-stools and to debris thrown out by
the nurses, doctors and the attendants on the shore. Those
on the surrounding tugboats or launches threw over life
preservers, long ropes and lifeboats. Long ladders were
pushed out from the shore and many who caught the rungs
of these were saved.
FEARFUL STRUGGLE IN WATER.
The men who jmnped overboard from the rescuing boats
had fearful experiences. Each one was seized by several
women and children, and but for the help of their com-

68 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
rades would have been drowned. The heat was so terrific
that none of the boats could run up alongside the Slocum.
Those on shore were also handicapped by the heat. The
tugboat WiUiam H. Gautier turned its fire hose on the
Slocum, but this and the Hues of hose from the island
made no impression whatever on the flames. Within two
minutes after the Slocum had been beached she was a
mass of flames from stem to stern. The columns of water
thrown from the hose lines had no effect.
The boats Franklin Edson and the Wade pushed up closer
to the Slocum than any of the others and maintained their
positions until all of the paint on their deck-houses had
been scorched and the boats themselves began ¦to bum.
Edward Mc(J!arroll, fireman of the Wade, was one of the
first to go overboard. He grabbed a girl about 19 years
old, passed her along to a man with a boat-hook, who
pulled her up on deck. Then he seized two little children
and passed them to the same man.
While he was trying to save an old woman five or six
others of the unfortunates grabbed him. One of the women
had him by the throat and McCarroU was carried down.
He managed to free himself and came to the surface. He
shoved the nearest woman toward the man with the boat-
hook and then managed to get on deck himself. He was
completely exhausted by the exertion. The woman he
had rescued saw her 12-year-old son struggling in the
water a few yards away, and running up to McCarroU she
gave him a shove, crying out:
"You must save my boy!"
HERO WAS ALMOST EXHAUSTED.
The shove sent McCarroU reeling backward into the
water. He grabbed the boy, managed to get him alongside

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 69
of the Wade and was sinking from exhaustion when Capt.
Wade jabbed the boat-hook into his clothing and held him
up until he could be hauled on board. The heroism of
McCarroU was duplicated by fully ¦twenty of the hardy tug-
boatmen. Mate James Duane of the Massasoit launched a lifeboat
and in the first trip saved seven women and dragged out
eight more who could not be resuscitated and died on the
beach. Policemen who had put over from the New York
shore to North Brother Island in small boats rowed around
the burning steamer and pulled in people — alive and dead
— ^by the dozen.
The tugboats would dart in and shave the side of the
Slocum for a minute or two to give those who were still
clinging to the side a chance to jump on board. Some of
those who jumped landed on the boat and others landed in
the "water.
Scores of people who might otherwise have been saved
were dragged dovm by frantic friends or strangers. A
powerful swimmer in that fearful, fighting crush of women
and children was almost as helpless as those who could
not swim.
The nurses from the different wards on the islands did
valiant work. Several of them who could swim plunged
into the water and pulled out little children. FuUy half
of those who were rescued were unconscious when dragged
up on the beach. Heroic measures were at once taken by
the doctors, nurses and attendants to resuscitate the uncon
scious ones. Many veve suffering from cuts, wounds and
burns. These were rushed up to the big green lawn in
front of the hospital and their hurts hurriedly dressed.
Blankets were spread all over the lawn and in ten minutes
the scene it presented was appalling.

70 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

LAST OF THE LIVING RESCUED.
Some of the tugboats took so many people on board that
they were in danger of being swamped. To make a^ land
ing it ¦ft'as necessary for these boats to steam around to the
dock, about a quarter of a mile away. There a corps of
attendants met each boat-load with a stack of stretchers and
carried the people, dead and alive, up to the la^wn. Within
ten minutes after the boat had struck the last of the U^ving
had been rescued.
Then came the task of recovering the dead. Within an
hour 150 of the victims, nine-tenths of them women, were
stretched out on the beach. Some of them were carried up
on top of the bank and laid in the long grass near the
little chapel, but most of them had to be left in the sand
just at the water's edge.
One woman who was taken out of the water held a baby
tightly clutched in her arms. There was a satchel or small
handbag attached to her waist, and in it were some papers
bearing the name, "Miss Eohme." The baby was tenderly
taken out of her arms and laid on the grass beside her.
MANY WOMEN WORE JEWELRY.
Many of the dead women wore costly jewelry. Scores
of small boats had eome over from the New York shore,
and to prevent thieving Dr. Watson stationed a number of
attendants to guard the dead. A big man was seen to
stoop do^wn and try to unchain a gold watch from the
waist of a dead woman. A couple of the attendants started
for him and he ran away without the booty. In the ex
citement he managed to escape.
In a very short time the fireboat Zophar Mills, the police

JUMPING FROM THE BOAT.

71

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 73
hoat Patrol and later on other fireboats arrived and pro
ceeded to pump tons of water into the burning wreck. It
was found impossible to quench the flames and the flre-
boats pushed her into deep water, where the strong ebb
tide carried the Slocum slowly up to a point about two
miles away, where she stranded between Eiker's Island and
Hunt's point. An hour later she keeled over so that only
her upper works, smokestack and skeleton of the pilot
house remained above the water.
Policemen from every precinct in the Bronx, nurses and
doctors from every hospital in the city north of Twenty- '
third street were rushed to North Brother Island. By the
time that many of the nurses arrived there was nothing
for them to do. Inspector Elbertson took charge of the
police arrangements. Health Commissioner Darlington
arrived on the scene very early and directed the work of
nurses and physicians. Coroner O'Gorman, with a staff
of assistants, took charge of the investigation as to the
cause of the catastrophe, being aided by Coroners Scholer
and Goldenkranz. WHOLE BOAT-LOADS OF INJURED.
Under the direction of Mrs. Kate White, matron at
North Brother Island, and Miss O'Donnell, the assistant
matron, the injured and survivors were quickly cared for.
As soon as the survivors were able to be moved they were
put on board the Massasoit or the Franklin Edson and
taken over to the pier at the foot of 138th street. These
boat-loads of people presented a pathetic spectacle.
Nearly all of them were more or less scorched or burned.
They were all dripping wet. Little children of 3, 4 and 5
years bereft of mothers, fathers and all other relatives
ffvere landed at the pier dazed and alone. These little ones

^4 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
were tenderly cared for by the police. They were put in
patrol wagons, grocery wagons, ambulances and other ve
hicles and hurried over to the hospitals or station houses.
On some of these first trips the boats brought over a num-
» ber of dead. These were taken to the Alexander Avenue
. ) Police Station.
' As soon as the immensity of the disaster was appreciated
by the officials it was decided not to send any more of the
dead over to the 138th street pier, but to remove them to
the Morgue.
It was several hours before the last of the sur^vivors were
able to leave the island. As many of these as could be ac
commodated with changes of clothing were given pajamas
or night dresses, and in these they lay on the la^wn cov
ered up in blankets until their own clothing had been
dried. Some of those who were in a serious condition were
placed on one of the Health Department boats and carried
do^wn to Belle^vue Hospital. All of the buildings on North
brother Island are used for contagious diseases, and it was
not deemed advisable to keep any of the injured ones there
longer than was necessary.
.MORE CORPSES TOWED IN.
After the steamer had been towed away and the search
for more bodies had continued for a couple of hours with
out results, it was the hope of the officials that the list of
dead would not exceed 200 or 250 at the outside. Later it
was learned, however, that there was a number of dead still
in the wreck, and these fears were verified when small boats
began to arrive at the North Brother Island pier, each tow
ing five or six blackened corpses astern.
The full scope of the disaster, however, was not known -

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 75
¦until the tide began to fall late in the afternoon. Then
the receding water uncovered the dead at the place where
the Slocum had been beached.
In a single hour between 4 :30 and 5 :30 p. m. fifty bodies
were recovered, nearly all those of women and children.
In the succeeding hour the work of recovering the dead
proceeded at even a faster rate.
Scores of small boats were pressed into service, and po
licemen and others brought bodies to the shore with terri
fying rapidity. Police Commissioner McAdoo directed that
the work be continued all night without cessation, and sent
for the Patrol and other boats fitted with electric search
lights, to illuminate the scene.
Photographers were also sent for to photograph the dead
so that their relatives might identify them. The elaborate
precautions taken during the day to make identification
possible were continued during the night under the direc
tion of Coroner O'Gorman and a staff of 100 volunteers.
DROWNED WOMAN HAD FORTUNE.
At 10 P. M. Coroner O'Gorman said that upward of
$200,000 in money and jewelry had been taken from the
bodies. On the body of Mrs. Eva Eingler there was found
$30,000 in bank notes, securities and bank books.
All of the property was taken to the coroner's office, at
177th street and Third avenue, and exhibited for identifi
cation. It was hoped that the greater number of bodies
woxfld be identified through those envelopes. The property
was turned over to those who proved to the satisfaction
cf Coroner O'Gorman that they had a rightful claim to it.
At 3 P. M. two boat-loads of the dead were sent to the
Morgue. On the Fidelity there were fifty bodies and dn the
Massasoit eighty. These bodies exhausted the capacity of

76 THE GENERAL SLOCtTM DISASTER.
the Morgue. The Morgue superintendent telephoned Mr.
Darlington that he would be unable to care for any more
bodies, and it was planned to establish a temporary morgue
on North Brother Island. This was abandoned as not
feasible, because it would require relatives of the dead to
make trips to both North Brother Island and the city j
morgue, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth street. It was
finally decided to establish a temporary morgue adjoining
the City Morgue and all the bodies were taken there.
GIRL COMES TO LIFB IN MORGUE.
One of the marvels of the disaster was the coming to life
of 15-year-old Clara Hartman, of 309 East Ninth street,
after she had been picked up burned and apparently
dro^wned, and towed in the rear of a launch from the side
of the wreck of the Slocum to the shore of Manhattan.
Wrapped in a tarpaulin sheet the seemingly lifeless body
of the young girl was placed with a row of twenty-nine dead
in the Alexander Avenue Station.
Fully three hours had elapsed from the time of the fire
to the hour when the seemingly lifeless body was conveyed
to the station house, and another hour passed before the
startling discovery was made that the young girl still
lived. The revelation caused consterna^tion among the witnesses, ,
who included police officials and reporters, surgeons and }
matrons, who were engaged in their various duties in the *
station house.
It was a strange woman, who had volunteered her serv
ices in aiding the police to obtain identifying marks of
the women dead, who made the startling discovery, and hei*
presence, every one said after the remarkable development,.
was regarded by those present as an inspiration.
Had this particular woman not happened on the scene at

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 77 i
the particular moment, Clara Hartman would have been
placed in the dead wagon and carried to the Morgue, with
an attendant coterie of a score of corpses.
Selecting the women dead for her inspection, the un
known woman had examined several, when she came to the
form of the young woman wrapped in the tarpaulin with
which some tender-hearted person had enveloped her body.
Unwrapping the folds of the death-sheet the unkno^wn
woman began to take an inventory of the seemingly dead
woman's effects, clothing and physical description.
There was something in the appearance of the body
which caused the examiner to pause, she afterward said.
Although she entertained not the slightest idea that life
stiU existed, she hesitated over the body. Undoing the cor
set at the front, and making a minute examination of the
underclothing, the woman started up with the exclama
tion, "This girl is alive !"
"hurry! she's alive!"
"Be quick!" she almost commanded, indicating a sur
geon, who stood with the rest, paralyzed. "Hurry ! This
girl is alive !"
In an instant not one, but three surgeons were at work
over the apparently dead form, and with iheir efforts un
mistakable e^vidence of life was observed. Presently the girl
! gave a deep breath ; then came the regular breathing — long
and hea^vy ; and when Miss Hartman had been carried to a
comfortable couch fashioned by blankets, she opened her
eyes, restored to consciousness. No hysteria accompanied
her return to her senses. She gazed into the faces of those
surrounding her, and then faintly raised her voice. She
said something not quite audible to those nearest her and
then she closed her eyes.
Another examination by the doctors convinced them

78 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
that there was every chance of saving the young girl's life,
and she was hurriedly but tenderly taken to Lincoln Hos
pital. When she was being carried to the ambulance one^
of the doctors supervising her removal said : "I don't think
this tag need remain any longer on this remarkable young |
child's person," and stripping the tag off ¦with his knife,
handed it to the sergeant. It was the tag indicating young
Clara Hartman's number in the line of dead resting then
in the improvised station house morgue.

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. H9.

CHAPTEE V.
DI^VERS BEGIN SEARCH FOR BODIES IN THB SUNKEN STEAM
BOAT.
As the General Slocum slid off the beach at North Broth
er Island, there was not a vestige of life aboard her. But
around her, in her paddle-wheels and upon her upper deck
were a number of bodies, how many will not be known
until the charred and twisted hulk, which now lies upon
the bottom of the river off Hunt's Point, is puUed to pieces
by wreckers. At least seventy people are believed to have
been caught when the hurricane deck fell like a great lid
upon the frantic people crowding the deck below.
As the vessel's stern swung clear of the rocks and mud
of the beach a dozen tugs fastened their lines to her and
began towing her into the channel. There was no attempt
to take her to a berth, but she was dragged along crab-
fashion, sometimes stern-on and sometimes bow-on, as she
was hurried up the riVer toward Eiker's Island, off which it
was determined to beach her. Her port paddle-box was
ablaze, her upper decks supports were a line of fire, while
smoke and flames belched from every window and opening
along her sides.
With her ghastly freight, the Slocum was pulled slowly
and carefully to a place where she would sink and where
she could be thoroughly searched. The almost numberless
streams of water that had been poured into her hold made
her stagger like a waterlogged hulk, and she reeled along in
¦the wake of her towing tugs, settling all the time.

) )

80 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
It was seen that she would not stay afloat much longer,
an(^ the plan to beach her off Eiker's Island was aban
doned. The course of the tugs was changed, and the Slo
cum was headed for Hunt's Point, where there are few
buildings and where a good bottom could be found. With
in about 250 feet of the shore the vessel, which was then
little more than a shell above the water, lurched heavily
forward, then careened on her port side, settling slowly un
der water. The brace-rod which runs from stem to stern,
her smoke-stacks, her starboard paddle-box and a few bits
of her hurricane deck protrude from the water at high tide.
She had hardly touched the bottom, her two stacks at an
angle of 45 degrees pointing down the channel, when the
work of searching for the dead on board of her began.
The Merritt & Chapman wrecking tug, William E. Chap
man, had assisted in towing the Slocum to the place where
she sank, and they had a crew aboard of the wreck almost as
soon as the eddies had finished circling about it.
Captain Burfeind had a force of men on the scene, and
the auxiliary yacht, owned by the department, was anchored
close by to render any assistance possible. One of the as
sistants of Mr. Haas, in a steam launch, with a dozen nurses
were also at the side of the wreck. The reverend gentle
man stood at the bow of the boat with a boathook in his
hand to take a practical part in the work of rescue, if any
should be alive. SE^VEN BODIES SOON FOUND.
The Slocum sank at 12.20 and by 1 o'clock seven bodies
had been taken from her. These were found in the star
board paddle-box, the only place where the rescuers could
work until the divers could go below to tear off the hurri
cane deck. The bodies that were recovered from the pad
dle-box were wedged into the paddles of the great wheel.

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 81
Some of them were burned beyond recognition and some of
them were crushed. As far as could be determined the
bodies were those of women. One poor remnant of hu
manity, twisted beyond all semblance of recognition, had a
wedding-ring on her finger, and, strange to say, this was
the only finger on that hand that had not been burned to a
small, blackened stump.
At nightfall enough of the side supports of the paddle-
box had been torn away to disclose five other bodies wedged
in close to its curving top.
Diver John Eice, who figured in the Boonton catastrophe,
in which Diver Oleson lost his life, and three other divers
employed by the city arrived at the scene on the Naval
Eeserve launch Oneida at 6 o'clock.
They went at once to the wreck and began the work of
¦disengaging the bordies entangled in the wreckage. As the
hodies were brought to the surface they were taken by men
waiting in boats and carried to tugs, from which they were
put on shore at North Brother Island.
Eoundsmen Klute and Giloon and Policemen George
Mott, Murphy, Skelly, Grey and Healey, of the Harbor
Squad, went to the scene in a police launch, and worked
steadily all afternoon. At 7 p. m., when these men had
taken 217 bodies from the water, they fell from sheer ex
haustion and were forced to go ashore and leave the work
to others.
' Diver Eice and his assistants were forced to stop work
because of exhaustion at 11 o'clock, but resumed again in
the morning. In the forward cabin of the sunken ship
they found ten bodies, those of four boys and six adults.
All of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. The
wrecking tug continued after the divers had left. The
work was in the center and stern of the boat. It was in the
stern that the greatest number of bodies were found.

83 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.

"made best landing I COULD," SAYS CAPTAIN, UNDEE
ARREST.
Captain William H. Van Schaick, who has been in com
mand of the General Slocum almost continuously since she
went into commission, escaped by jumping into the river
and swimming ashore. He was taken to the Alexander
Avenue Station from North Brother Island and placed
nnder arrest, ¦with five members of his crew. Captain Van
Schaick made a statement to Coroner Berry, in which he
said: "We left the foot of East Twenty-third street about 9.30
o'clock. It was reported to me that 982 tickets for adults
had been taken in at the gangways. This does not include
children who came aboard, or passengers who paid their
fare at the gangways. I should say there were about 1,40D
souls aboard when we started on the trip up the river.
"I took the boat slowly up the river, and we were bearing
over toward the Sunken Meadows after passing through
Hell Gate, when I heard shouts of 'fire.' I was in the
pilot-house at the time. I sounded the alarm for fire drill.
Fire apparatus was stationed on the boat and the crew had
been schooled in its use. I saw smoke issuing from the
companionwa5's forward, and my first thought was that it
was coming from the boiler-rooms.
"I svrang the boat over toward North Brother Island,
knowing it was the safest and quickest place to land. Ee-
sponse to the bell in the engine-room showed me that the
engineer, B. F. Conklin, or some of his assistants, were
still at their post. A few moments before the boat ground
ed in the channel off North Brother Island the fiames were
licking the pilot-house.
"Followed by my pilots, I ran over the deck and jumped

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 83-
int-o the river. My hat and clothing were burning when I
jumped. I reckon the time between the first alarm and.
when we grounded at about five minutes.
DID HIS BEST, SAID THE CAPTAIN.
"I floundered in the water and do not know who puUed
me out as I neared the shore. Someone dragged me up'
under a tree, and it was some time before I was revived.
I made the quickest and best landing under the circum
stances." Captain Van Schaick gave his address as the General
Slocum. He was extremely weak, and Coroner Berry or
dered his removal to Lebanon Hospital.
THE GENEEAL SLOCUM AN UNLUCKY CEAFT.
The General Slocum was one of the best known vessels;
about New York Harbor. Since the time of her launch
ing, in 1891, she has been employed in so many different
capacities, and on so many different runs, that possibly five
out of every ten people in New York City have, at some
time, been aboard of her, or have seen her at close range.
Built for the Eockaway service as sister ship to the Grand
Eepublic, she was kept on that run during most of the days
of the summer months, and during the thirteen years she
has been in the service she has carried to that resort almost
enough people to equal the population of this city.
As an excursion boat she was easily one of the most
popular of all the vessels that ply the surrounding waters..
Her build did not permit of much room for dancing, but
the younger folks usually found room in a rather smaU
space on the main deck for this amusement, while the gen
eral arrangement of the vessel, with corners and spaces to-

84 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
suit every kind and class, gave her great popularity. Dur
ing the excursion season, which comes before and after the
Eockaway season, she was employed almost every day by
excursion parties. WAS A YACHT RACE BOAT.
The General Slocum, too, has followed every interna
tional yacht race held off Sandy Hook since the day she was
built. When she was in her prime and was the finest of
the harbor craft, great sums were paid for her on the yacht
courses. Since 1891, however, other vessels have appeared
which are faster and more suitable to open sea sailing than
the Slocum, and she has gradually become the poor man's
transport at the races. Besides serving in these capacities
she has, every Decoration Day, made a trip to Bridgeport,
Conn., since 1895, under the auspices of her owners.
These runs had become quite a fixture, and many of the
people who went on them boasted that they had been on
the first one.
At her launching, everybody was full of praise for Divine
Burtis, Jr., the boat builder, of Conover street and At
lantic Basin, Brooklyn, who built her. The contract for
her construction was given out on February 15, 1891, and
on April 18th of the same year, three days more than three
months later, she was launched.
As she was the finest vessel in the harbor, and having been
built in Brooklyn, that city took a pride in her, and turned
out in a crowd at her launching. Miss May Lewis, the
niece of the then president of the Knickerbocker Steamboat
Company, her owners, broke the bottle of ¦wine over her
bows as she left the ways.
THE BOATBUILDEE's. DREAM.
When the vessel a short time later made her trial trip
she was described as the realization of the boatbuilder'a

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 85
dream. She was provided with three watertight compart
ments, which was something entirely new then in such
craft, and she was said to be unsinkable. Her dimensions
were: length of keel, 235 feet; breadth of hull, 37 feet
6 inches; depth of huU, 13 feet 3 inches; length of deck,,
250 feet; breadth of deck, 70 feet.
Her body was of white oak and yellow pine, and she was
of about 1,200 tons. Her engines, which were three of
the most advanced pattern, were built by the W. & A.
Fletcher Company, of Hoboken. She was a sidewheel
boat, each wheel 31 feet in diameter, bearing 26 paddles.
She had a steam steering gear of the latest pattern, and was
lighted by 250 electric lights. She had a speed of about
18 miles an hour.
The General Slocum had three decks, the main deck
provided aft with a comfortable and roomy cabin for
women, and "uith a restaurant forward. The next above,
the promenade, held the main cabin, richly lined with
highly polished sycamore and upholstered in red velvet.
Forward and aft of this cabin were roomy deck spaces.
The band usually played on the after-part of this deck.
The hurricane deck was provided with a running bench all
along the outside. Her two funnels were almost amidships
and were placed one on each side. Her body was painted
white, and her funnels a medium yellow, while her name
in large gold letters stood out on either side. She carried
a crew of 22 men, a captain and two pilots.
HER MISFORTUNES.
The General Slocum has been in almost constant mis
fortune since a time shortly after her launching. No other
vessel in the harbor has nearly as long a record of accidents;
as she, and she has cost her owners thousands of dollars at

86 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
various times for repairs and for hauling her off some bar
on which she had lodged.
She had not been running four months when she ran onto
a mud bank off Eockaway, and remained there until a fieet
of tugs hauled her off. Two days later she ran into the
old Monmouth, in the North Eiver, and had to be taken
to the dry-dock for the first time with a hole in her side. She
has broken her walking-beam or a bucket in her paddle
so many times that during recent years nobody has taken
any account of such an accident.
The first serious mishap to the Slocum happened on
July 29, 1894, when, on a run home from Eockaway, on
which it was said she had 4,700 persons aboard, late at
night she ran on to a sandbar and struck with such force
that she carried away several stanchions and injured her
electrical apparatus so that every light aboard was extin
guished. A panic followed in which women who fainted
were trampled upon, and men fought with each other in
their efforts to get at the boats. Pandemonium reigned for
half an hour, until order was restored by the crew. Then
it was found that hundreds had been injured in the wild
scrimmage. In August of the same year she met her next mishap.
During a heavy squall she ran on a bar off the end of
Coney Island. It was night, and again a panic raged.
The captain and crew fought do^wn the scrambling passen
gers, and finally when the storm abated, transferred them
to another vessel. The Slocum remained on the bar for
twenty-four hours.
In the following September she was again laid up
through a collision in the East Eiver with the tug E. T.
Sayre. She sustained damages which cost $1,000 to re
pair, and drifted helplessly about the river for a time, at
last to be saved from going on the rocks off Governor's Isl-

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 87
and. Minor accidents happened to her until July, 1898,
when she again was put out of commission by the steam
Ughter Amelia, with ¦which she collided off the Battery.
The two vessels locked, and were being carried on the Bat
tery rocks when tugs separated them.
In June, two years ago, while returning from Eockaway
with 400 people aboard, in order to avoid a small sloop
she again ran on a bar, where she remained all night, her
passengers camping out on deck and in the cabin.
HAD A MOB ABOARD ONCE.
The most serious affair that ever happened aboard the
Slocum before the recent disaster, however, occurred on
August 17, 1901. She then had aboard 900 persons, mostly
men who were described at the time as Paterson Anarchists.
When they boarded the vessel at Jersey City most of them
were intoxicated. The Slocum's owners had contracted to
take the party to Eockaway, and when the vessel passed out
side the Narrows she encountered a rather hea^vy sea.
Some of the passengers ordered the captain to turn back.
He refused, and then a mob organized to compel him to
obey their wishes. The mob first started a panic among the
women aboard, and then began a march to the pilot-house
to lay hands on the captain. The deck hands and spare
men from the engine force were quickly called upon, and,
with the captain, they attacked the mob, and a pitched bat
tle was started. Little by little the mob and all other pas
sengers were driven into the cabins, the doors of which were
locked. An hour later the Slocum stopped at the police
pier at the Battery, where seventeen of the men were turned
over to the police. Most of them were later sent to jail.
The officers of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company
have frequently been up before the authorities for over-

88 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
crowding the Slocum. Almost every year special men were
detailed to watch her, and charges against her were often
made. In 1895 tlie company was fined $1,670 for a vio
lation. CAPTAIN VAN SCHAICK'S RECORD.
Since the day of her launching the General Slocum has
been in command of Capt. William H. Van Schaick, who is
credited *tvith being one of the best of the local pilots. He
is said to know every foot of the ground about this harbor,
and though he has been in innumerable accidents, he is said
to have suffered more from bad luck than from ignorance.
He is 61 years of age. His home has always, during the
sailing seasons since 1891, been just aft of the pilot-house
on the hurricane deck of the Slocum. His employers credit
him with being a most capable, careful, and reliable man,
always ready to protect their interests and the interests of
his passengers at any cost.
Captain Van Schaick's first pilot was Edward Van Wart,
aged 68, of 331 West Twenty-first street; his second pilot
was Edwin M. Weaver, aged 28, who lives in Troy; B. F.
Conklin was the engineer; Edward Flanagan, mate, and.
Michael McGrann, steward.

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 91

CHAPTEE VI.
SCENES 'AND INCIDENTS GATHERED BY VARIOUS WRITERS — ¦
GIRL FOUGHT WAY THROUGH PANIC-STRICKEN CROWD.
Struggling for safety. Miss Frances Hilbert, of 419
East Fifth street, had all of her clothing except her petti-.
coat torn from her before she could leap to a tug that
was near the General Slocum. The girl, who is 17 years
of age, fought her way through the frantic women and made
the daring jump to the tug. As she made the leap- in
safety another woman jumped squarely on top of her, hurt
ing her shoulders.
The young girl borrowed a man's jacket and thus scantily
clad went to her home. She was exhausted from her experi
ence and was badly shaken up in the rush.
TWO BOY HEROES PERISH WHILE FIGHTING FIRE.
Half a dozen young boys, schoolmates at Public School
No. 19, at 334 East Fourteenth street, are kno^wn to have
been passengers on the Slocum, and all but one are miss
ing. These boys, 14 to 16 years old, were chums at the
school. The parents of one of the boys and a younger
brother are also believed to have been on the boat.
Two of the boys, Fred and Charles Schuler, brothers, of
15 Stuyvesant street, were last seen just before the upper
deck gave way. The two boys were working in a bucket
brigade, throwing water upon the fiames, and disappeared

"92 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER^
when the deck crashed down into the flames below. Their
father searched the hospitals and Morgue for news of his
heroic sons, but did not find them.
Henry Alt, of 14 Lafayette place, was one of the boys
j who went on the excursion. His mother, father and brother,
I it is believed, accompanied him. All were missing from
their home that night. The rooms were dark. No one
about the building had heard anything of them since they
left the house, a happy family party, early in the morn
ing. H. McCahon, of 504 East Fourteenth street, another of
the^schoolboy chums, is also missing, and his parents vainly
searched for news of him.
Otto Sanders is also believed to have been on the boat.
He is missing.
William S. Masterson, the only one of the six boys
known to have been rescued, was picked up by a tug.
"I saw Fred and Charles Schuler working with buckets
trying to put out the flames on the boat. They were on the
upper deck. Then that deck caved in," said young Master-
son, "and I was thrown off into-the water. I swam around
for awhile, trying to keep myself afioat, and w^as picked up
by a tugboat. I did not see any of the boys after I was
thro^wn into the water."
GIRL SLID DOWN POLE FEOM UPPER DECK TO THE WATEE.
Miss Marie Kreuger, of 451 West End avenue, who was
rescued and taken to the Harlem Hospital, said :
"I was sitting on the upper deck when there was a cry
of fire. Men came among us and told us to be quiet. The
women and children were panic-stricken. I slid down a
pole to the water and held on by a rope on the side of
the boat.

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 93
"The flames began to shoot out of the portholes and I
had to let go. A little boy was near me, holding to a
life preserver. A coal barge was near and a deckhand
threw us a rope, which we got and were pulled aboard the
coal barge.
"I saw my cousin and sister, but they disappeared. An
ambulance, with Dr. Krauskopf of Harlem Hospital, came
along and brought us here."

BOY'S HEAD BUENED OFF AS HE KNEELS IN
PEAYEE.

!AS DEATH COMES CHARRED BODY TOPPLES FROM PADDLEB02
INTO THE RIVER.
Patrolman John Hines, of the Mulberry Street Station,
was one of the scores of policemen sent to the scene of the
disaster. When he learned the name of the vessel that had
burned it struck horror to his heart, as he knew that his
mother-in-law, Mrs. Margaret Wolf, her daughter, Mrs.
Lena Ulbnan, and her 8-year-old son had gone on the ex
cursion. They could not be found by Hines, who felt cer
tain that they had perished.
Inspector H. J. Steele, of the Building Department, who
chanced to be on North Brother Island, was among the
number there who went to the rescue of passengers. He
waded into the water and drew out three persons alive.
H. L. Malabar, chief clerk at North Brother Island, has
witnessed many horrifying sights, including those of war,
but he said those of yesterday were the most terrible he
ever saw. When he flrst saw the Slocum the boat was
a mass of flames.

54 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.

HUNDREDS IN FIRE PIT.
¦"I saw hundreds of persons jumping into the water,"
I said Mr. Malabar, "and finally the decks coUapsed, throw-
• ing the crowds on it either into the water or into the pit
of fire on the boat. A boy knelt on the top of the paddle-
box, with his hands clasped in prayer.
"No one on board paid any attention to him. They
were too much occupied in looking after their o^wn safety.
The fiames crept up around the boy's feet, then they licked
upward to his face until he was enveloped in fire. Finally,
I was horror-stricken to see his head burn off and fall
into the river, followed soon by his charred body."
On the body of a woman lay in the long row on the island
was found $150 in greenbacks and $25 in gold. The body
was marked No. 141 of the unidentified. The next body
also was that of a woman, on whom was found but six
cents. Michael McGrath, steward of the General Slocum, was
among the drowned. He went overboard with between
$200 and $300 on his person, and when his body was found
the money was gone.
Mrs. Albertina Lembeck, of 427 East Ninth street, was
¦on the upper deck. With her were her five children, rang
ing in age from 4 to 10 years, also Mrs. Haas, wife of
the pastor of the church, and her two children. They
all remained where they were until the deck fell in.
Three of Mrs. Lembeck's children were thrown into-the
water and she jumped in with the other two, aged 6 and
4 years, respectively.
Mrs. Haas and lier children disappeared. When Mrs.
Lembeck struck the water she became unconscious and
sank, and when she finally recovered her senses and found

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 95
herself rescued all her five children were gone. She was
taken to Lincoln Hospital, suffering from shock.
Among the physicians who worked unremittingly at
North Brother Island were Dr. Weisman and five from
the Eiverside Hospital. Dr. Weisman finally was compelled
to desist in his work toward night. He had worked so
constantly in moving arms and limbs and in other efforts
to resuscitate apparently drowned persons that he was be
numbed and was unable to move hand or foot himself. He
sat and directed the work thereafter in the hospital proper..
BOY SUEVIVOR HELPED SAVE LITTLE GIRLS.
George Gray, 13 years old, of 309 East Fourteenth street,
one of the survivors, tells the following story:
"I was sitting on the rear of the upper deck with my
two friends, Otto Hans, of 310 East Fourteenth street, and
Albert Greenwall, of 326 East Fourteenth, street. The
boat was just passing out of Hell Gate and going toward
an island when I smelled fire.
"I said, 'Hey, boys, there's a fire !' and we jumped upon
a seat and tried to pull do^wn some life preservers.
"A lot of them were rotten and all the cork came out
of them. Women and children around us were yelling some
thing awful. While we were pulling at the life preservers
^ big cloud of smoke and fiame came right up out of the
center of the boat. Then the boat seemed to stop, and the
women began jumping overboard, and I saw some of them
throw their babies in the water and jump after them.
"After the fire came all up around the deck the boat got
started again, but the people kept jumping over. There
weren't any tugboats near us then, but soon I saw a lot
coming for us. I was afraid to jump over and got Otto
and Albert to stay with me.

96 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
"We all had got life preservers for ourselves and for
three little girls who we held on to when they tried to
jump. "The first tug that came to us was the Director. It was
a big boat and came right up near us as we were going
toward the island. ^
"Pretty soon there were so many on her that her rear
end was way down in the water and her bow way up in
the air. I got hold of a little girl's leg who was falling
over, pulled her up and sat on her so as to keep her from
being pushed over.
"As I was on the boat I saw a man on the upper deck
take a baby and throw it into the water. The baby's hair
was all on fire and she fell in the water near the tug and a
man jumped over and got her and brought her to the
Director."

MOTHEES HUEL BABIES INTO EIVEE AND
FOLLOW.

WOMEN ABLAZE TAKE FLYING LEAPS TO DEATH IN WATEE
 SEXTON OF CHUECH DESCEIBES AWFUL SCENES.
John Halphusen, sexton of St. Mark's Church, who was
among the rescued, tells a thrilling story of the burning
of the boat.
More than half of those on board, I should say, were
children — ^naturally, because excursions of this kind are
primarUy for the amusement of the young folk. The
weather was perfect, and the start was delightful.
"We had been gone about an hour, I suppose, and I have
no idea how far we had gone, when I suddenly saw a rush
toward the center of the boat, followed by a cry of alarm,

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 97
"I pressed forward to see what was the matter, at the
same time calling to the people not to crowd. I took it
first to mean that they were rushing forward to see some
thing along the shore, and I remembered that immediately
afterward the thought fiashed across my mind that some
body had fallen overboard.
"With that idea in my head I had started to ask the
captain what the trouble was when I saw a cloud of smoke
go up from the interior of the boat amidships. Immedi
ately afterward that fearful cry of 'fire' was raised.
"I don't think any one will ever be able to describe the
scene that followed. There was a rush away from the spot
from which the smoke came. Screams of women and cries
of the children rent the air. Men began to shout, and
there w^ere cries of 'keep cool,' 'where are the lifeboats?'
'don't crowd,' etc., but I doubt if many heard them.
"Panic ensued. Sheets of flame foUowed the rolling
clouds of smoke, and the fearful rush began to the sides of
the boat. Women and children were thrown down and
trampled upon. Many were pushed overboard, and more
jumped into the river.
"I saw mothers hurl their little ones far into the water
and then jump after them. Men and women enwrapped in
flames rushed past me and leaped overboard. The water
was soon dotted with fioating bodies, which soon disap
peared, only to be replaced by others.
CREW LOST THEIR HEADS.
"It seemed to me that the crew of the boat lost their
heads — they were undisciplined, and did not do what sane
men would have done to stay the panic and restore order.
"Never again, I hope, shall I witness such scenes. In an
instant almost the entire boat was ablaze, and the water
was the only refuge for them.

S

98 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
"Pastor Haas seemed to be everywhere — calm and col
lected, striving to stay the panic and assisting in every way
to help as many as possible to safety, regardless of his own
welfare. I had a glimpse of him once when he seemed to
be surrounded by flames, and that was the last I saw of
him. "I felt that he must surely perish, but I have since
learned that he escaped.
"There was little time to secure life preservers, and I
doubt if many thought of them. Such pictures of agony
I have never witnessed.
"I assisted as much as I could, but I also had my two
daughters, Mina, twelve, and Clare, ten, to look after. I
took them to the top deck, and led them onto the paddle-
box. The flames were all about us now, and I was merely
waiting for the moment to order my children to jump.
"Tugs were coming to the rescue from all directions.
In the water I could see on every side the despairing strug
gles of the dying. Finally, the flames crept so close to us
that they almost set our clothing afire. I signaled to a tug
and called to my daughters to jump.
"The tug Sumner picked us up.
"I dread to think of the number who were lost. To me
it is a miracle that any escaped uninjured. It is a terrible
blow to our church, and to think that it was the ending of a
happy picnic party !"
BOY WOULD NOT JUMP BECAUSE OF FLOATING BODIES.
John Eil, fourteen years old, one of the survivors of the
disaster, gave the following account of his terrible experi
ence, his mother and two brothers being drowned before
his eyes:
"I, my mother and my little brother Paul made one of a
large party from our district.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 99
"When we left the pier the deck was packed to the limit
of its capacity. The band was playing, the children were
frolicking, and we were all having a fine time.
"As we neared Hell Gate children were called down to
I the lower deck, where ice cream and soda water were served.
"The children were falling all over each other in an effort
to get to the tables which held the refreshments. With my
mother and my little brother Paul, I went to the engine-
room to watch the machinery. I was standing there with
John Gray, Albert Greenwall, Otto Hans, and a number
of children.
"Suddenly, and without the least note of warning, there
was a burst of flame from the furnace room that rushed up
through the engine-room and fiashed out about us. The
flames spread with rapidity of an explosion, setting fire to
the clothing of the women and children who were grouped
about the engine room watching the machinery.
"My mother's dress and my little brother's clothing
caught fire, and I grabbed them and started to rush for the
side of the boat. There was the most terrible panic as the
burning women and children rushed out among those sur
rounding the ice cream and soda water tables screaming and
yelhng with pain. ^
"In the terrible scramble my mother and Uttle brother
were swept from me and carried toward the side where the
children and women with their clothes burning had begun
to jump into the water. The fiames .spread in bursts that
soon had the entire deck enveloped.
"The crew was helpless to render any assistance or make
efforts to check the advance of the fire. We were just pass
ing out through HeU Gate when the fire started. The cap
tain headed the boat toward North Brother Island, and the
pilots who were with liim yelled frantically to us to stay
aboard until they beached the boat.

100 THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
"But in a moment after the fiames had burst from the
engine room great numbers began to jump overboard. The
women were wild with fright, and snatching their children
to them leaped into the whirlpools that carried them toward
the rocks on both shores.
"When she was grounded the flames had spread over the
entire upper and lower decks. There were only a few spots.
on the boat untouched by the flames and in these were piled
up women who had fainted and falling pinned others to the
deck. "The men from the tugs who could get near the steam
boat shouted for those on board to jump, and then the small
boats picked them up by the score.
"Many charred and burned bodies were floating in the
wake of the General Slocum as she made for North Brother
Island. '
"I remained on board, as I could not get to the side to
leap over because of the mass of wreckage and burned
bodies of children piled in front of me. My face and
hands, as you see, are badly burned.
"As soon as I reached shore I rushed for the elevated
road to hurry and notify my father of the disaster."
BOY KICKS GIRL ON SHINS TO KEEP HER FROM FAINTING.
, John Tishner, thirteen years old, of 404 Fifth street,
another survivor, describes his experiences and his rescue
as follows:
"I was down on the lower deck ¦with Ida Wousky, four
teen years old, who lives in the same house with me. We
were eating ice cream when the flames burst out right near
us. Everybody seemed to be yelling fire, and I saw a lot
of women with their hair and dresses burning jump into
the water long before any boats came near us.
"My friend, Ida Wousky, was going to faint, but I

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 101
kicked her in the shins and waked her up. Then I got a
lot of life preservers, most of them rotten, and after a
long time I got one on Ida.
''The tugs were coming near us then, and I told her to
jump. She wouldn't jump, and I pushed her over. Then
I jumped in the water myself and I got hold of her hair
and held her up until the tug came and we were pulled out.
"I guess I saw more than two hundred people jump over
on my side of the boat ten minutes before the tugs, row-
boats and launches came anywhere near us. I couldn't
see on the other side of the boat, but I could hear them
screaming, and I could hear the splashes in the water as
they jumped overboard.
"After I first saw the smoke and flames there was a ter
rible rush of people to the rear of the boat. They were
pushing and pulling each other until those near the railing
were cro^n^ded over into the water, falling on top of each
other as they landed in the river. I saw a lot of women
throw their babies overboard and then fall after them.
Most of these women were drowned.
"There were a lot of my friends on the boat. Some of
them were rescued, and some of them I didn't see after we
got ashore.
"Harry Gambichner, of No. 404 Fifth street ; Mrs. Gross,
George Gross, and two little girls of No. 90 First avenue,
were eating ice cream together when the fire started. I
saw George Gross get some life preservers for them, and
then, v/hen the smoke came up, that was the last I saw of
them. "Another friend of mine, Paul Kasner, fourteen years
old, who lives on First avenue, between Fifth and Sixth
streets, was near me when the fire started. I saw him get
a life preserver and jump off. He^was picked up by a
tugboat.

102 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
"I saw a lot of girls that lived near me get life preserv
ers and jump into the water long before the tugs came.
They were aU. swimmers and got ashore. One of the girls
I saw swim aU the way in with a baby.
"I guess I saw fifty babies in the water before the tug
boats came, and the men and women were jumping in on
top of them. When they got the tug to the New York
shore a man took me in a buggy to the elevated station, and
I went home and told my mother that I wasn't drowned."
SAW MANY FORCED O^VBRBOAED.
Probably the first persons to see the outburst of flames
from a nearby vantage point were Thomas Miley, of No.
629 East 137th street, and John Kain, of No. 617 East
138th street, young men, who were in a rowboat within one
hundred feet of the big excursion steamer. Their impres
sions are well set forth in young Miley's statement, after
he and Kain had assisted in the work of rescue.
"Both Kain and I were rowing, with our backs toward
the Slocum," he said, "when we heard a loud report as if
an explosion had occurred. When I looked around a cloud
of smoke was hovering above the forward part of the
steamboat. It seemed only a few moments untU flames
leaped up, but it may have been longer, because my com
panion and I were awe-stricken by the scenes that followed
the explosion. TRAIL OF DYING IN WATEE.
".We could see women and children struggling with those
in the rear, and in their terror they clung to those closest to
them and dragged them into the water.
"While this was happening the Slocum was being run

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 103
in toward North Brother Island. She had been only 100
feet or so distant from the island shore when we heard the
report, but in making the short trip, a long trail of strug
gling persons was left in the water. Many of them, I
think, had been crushed to death in the panic before they
touched the water, and they sank at once from view.
FLAMES SWEEP OVER DECKS.
"In a short time flames burst from other parts of the
vessel, and the passengers' panic became more terrific.
Over the sides they were swept from the decks in masses.
By this time the shore had been reached and the Slocum
had been run in between two small piers.
"Almost before the end of the footbridge reached the
shore the shrieking passengers rushed out on the plank and
we saw several persons drop into the water as though
pushed from the sides. In a short time those who were
uninjured were ashore, but there were some who had been
hurt by the struggle for life aboard the burning boat who
could not reach the gangplank.
"Some of the less frightened men rushed back and car
ried these to safety, but there were many, a tugboat ca,p-
tain told us, who had been hemmed in by the flames on
the lower deck. This captain had run his boat alongside
and picked up ten bodies and saved two little boys. The
tug belonged to the Daley Company.
"The tug Wade was the first to go to the rescue. My
companion and I followed and succeeded in recovering two
bodies. One was that of an aged, woman, and the other
body was that of a boy, about 10 years old. The boy's
head was burned and his face was bruised, as though he
had been injured before he was forced into the water.
"About a hundred feet from the Bronx shore was a pri-

104 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
vate yacht, with several persons aboard, but they made no
move to help the struggling people."
HIS GRANDMOTHER TORN FROM BOY AS HB WAS SAVING HER.
Charles Schwartz, 17 years old, of 141 East Third street,
was saved, but he lost his mother, Mrs. Louise Schwartz,
and his grandmother, ¦^vho was 68 years old. He says of his
experience :
"When the fire started I ¦n^as sitting with my mother and
grandmother on the upper deck. My mother ran from me,
saying she would look after herself, and bidding me care
for my grandmother.
"I carried my grandmother to the rail to await the ap
proach of some host, but suddenly the rail gave way, and
v,dth scores of others we were dumped into the water. Il
the struggle of the mass who were fighting to keep up,
my grandmother was torn from me and drowned before
I could reach her. I swam around, looking for her body,
until I was picked up by a tug.
"I was taken ashore to North Brother Island. As I
"tvas standing on the shore I saw a number of bodies float
ing toward me. Thereupon I undressed and swam out.
Among the bodies I found that of my grandmother and
brought it ashore. I fear my mother was drowned with
those who were swept into the water when the rail gave
¦way." HEROINE RISKS LIFE FI^VE TIMES TO SAVE CHILDREN.
Pauline Fuetz, a comely IS-j^ear-old nurse employed in
the North Brother Island Hospital, flung herself into the
water, swam into the midst of the struggling women and
children, brought five little tots safely to shore, and then
battled until overmastered by a powerful woman who

BEMOVINCt THE VALUABLES FBOM THE BODIES.
105

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 107
•dragged her to the bottom and from whose death clutch
she escaped exhausted and helpless. She was pulled ashore
by nurses and carried to the hospital.
When Dr. Stewart, the superintendent of the hospital,
sounded the alarm. Miss Fuetz was among the first to reach
the beach. With the other nurses and men she waded into
the water and helped ashore all those who were witliin
reach. Fifty feet away the surface of the water was dotted with
the heads of struggling women and children. Some were
making feeble efforts to keep afioat, others drifted help
lessly, kept up by their clothing.
SWIMS OUT TO THEM.
"I am going out to them," cried Miss Fuetz, hysterically,
as she pulled off her shoes and skirts.
Several nurses caught hold of the girl and tried to
restrain her.
"Let me go," she cried. "I can swim ; I must go to their
rescue." She flung the nurses off and jumped into the water. With
¦quick, strong strokes she soon reached a little girl. Taking
the child's golden hair in her teeth she turned and swam
to shore, delivering her charge to the nurses, who waded
; out to meet her.
¦ Then she turned back. She grasped another child and
took the little one to shore. Notwithstanding the pleading
of the nurses, she returned again and rescued another child.
Five times she reached the shore with her human bur
dens. The sixth trip almost proved her last. As she passed
close by a woman, who gave no sign of life, the latter's
arms suddenly clasped around the girl's neck. Those on

108 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
the shore saw a short struggle and then both disappeared.
They arose again, but Miss Fuetz could not break the wom
an's hold. Finally she placed her hand under the woman's
chin and pushed her off. Before the woman could recover
her hold Miss Fuetz had passed around and caught her
hair and started to push her toward shore.
DRAGGED ASHORE EXHAUSTED.
When they were within a few feet of solid footing the
woman suddenly turned and grasped the girl again, both
sinking. Soon the girl's body appeared on the surface. Her
strength had been exhausted. She was dragged ashore more
dead than alive and sent to the hospital.
"It wasn't anjihing to do," said Miss Fuetz, later. "What
¦could I do? I saw the women and children struggling in
the water, and what could I do but go to their rescue?
"I was after the children. I wanted to save the women,
too, but my first resolve was to bring the children ashore.
The woman who got me nearly took me do^wn with her. If
she hadn't been so excited I would have saved her.
"It wasn't much to do. I learned to swim at Asbury
Park. Yes, I saved four lives there last summer."
The children Miss Fuetz brought ashore were all uncon
scious, but they were quickly revived and will recover.
SEES BROTHER SINK TO DEATH AT HIS SIDE.
Fred Liederman, of 4 Smith street. White Plains, N. Y.,
was on bo^d with three other boys. They were George
Heinz, 16 years old, of 97 Avenue A; John Liederman,
his brother, and John Schoeneman.
"My poor mother, brother and sister were on that boat,
too," said' Liederman. "I don't know what became of
them. I was standing with the other three boys at the
right side of the boat leaning against the rail.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 109
"I saw some smoke about the middle of the boat. Then
I heard the shout of 'fire' and the people started to run.
I shouted, 'Don't crowd,' and pushed my brother Johnnie
toward the side of the boat.
"We were almost to North Brother Island when the rail
gave way and many people tumbled into the water. My
brother and I were two of these.
"I caught hold of Johnnie's hand and tried to save him.
He lost his hold on my hand, and the last I saw of him he
was looking at me with a look of appeal that was terrible.
I was picked up by a boat."
Suffering so greatly from the shock caused by the loss
of his wife and child that he could not give his name and
address, James EUer, a musician, employed at the Metro
politan Opera House, was taken to Lincoln Hospital.

PASTOE HAAS TELLS HOW HE WAS PAETED
FEOM HIS FAMILY.

LOST HIS LITTLE GIRL IN THE PANIC, JUMPED OVERBOARD
WITH HIS WIFE AND SISTER; MRS. HAAS IS DEAD, THE
CHILD IS MISSING.
The Eev. George C. F. Haas, of 64 Seventh street, pastor
¦of St. 'Mark's German Lutheran Church, which gave the
ill-fated excursion, was on board the General Slocum. With
him were his wife, his little daughter and his sister. Miss
Emma Haas. He had with him also as his personal guest,
the Eev. Julius G. Schulz, pastor of a Lutheran church
in Brie, Pa.
The Eev. Mr. Haas leaped into the water with his wife
after he had been badly burned about the head. He was

110 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
rescued by one of the relief boats and landed on North
Brother Island, whence he was taken to Lincoln Hospital.
Thither his sister was also taken, suffering with burns..
Both were able to return home in a few days. Up to that.
time they had received no tidings of Mrs. Haas, but the
clergyman had received word that his little daughter was
saved. "It had been my practice every year," said Mr. Haas,
"to make a tour of the boat as soon as we started on our
annual excursion, to see that everything was all right.
Shortly after the steamer left the Third street pier that -
morning I started from the promenade deck to make such
a trip. I had just completed the roimd of the steamer on
the several decks forward and aft, and was on my way-
back to the promenade deck when I saw smoke coming up
a narrow gangway leading from the lower to the main
deck. pastoe's effoets to sa-ve.
"I thought at first that the smoke might be blowing
that way from the galley, where I knew they were prepar
ing to cook the clam chowder, but the smoke speedily in
creased in volume, and I soon realized that it was some
thing more serious. I ran to where my wife was sitting on
the promenade deck and returned with her to the main
deck, at the same time giving the warning to everybody I
met to go to the stem of the boat.
"On reaching the main deck I drove the people before me
toward the stern, but that was not difficult, for many of
them had noticed the smoke almost as soon as I had, and
were hastening away from the point of danger. When
I reached the end of the cabin I tried to close the sliding
doors so as to prevent the smoke and flames from being
blovm through them to the open part of the deck, where a

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. Ill
big crowd had gathered. I closed one of the doors, but the
other I could not move.
"I cannot tell how many minutes elapsed between the
time when I first saw the smoke and when the steamer w^as
all in flames. It seemed only a few seconds to me, but
from what I can remember having done in that interval
it must have been considerably longer. My wife and I stood
together near the rail until we saw that the upper deck
was about to fall upon us. We saw nothing of our little
girl, who had been playing with other children. My sister
stood near us. None of us could swim, but when we real
ized that it meant certain death to remain longer on the
steamer we all jumped overboard together.
SEPARATED FROM HIS FAMILY.
"We had on life preservers, but I don't think we had.
them properly adjusted. At all events, after I got into the
water I did not float, and I immediately became separated
from my wife and sister. I have no recollection as to how
I was rescued. The first thing I knew I found myself on
North Brother Island, and was brought from there to the
hospital. I did not Imow that my sister had been saved
until I found she v/as a patient in the same hospital, and
I have received no tidings from my wife."
- The Eev. Mr. Schulz, Mr. Haas' guest, and Mr. Mueller,
a St. Mark's Sunday School teacher, played an important
part in the rescue of fifty or more children. They gath
ered the children on the lower deck at the stern of the
steamer at the first symptoms of panic, and although many
of the frightened little ones tried to jump overboard, re
strained them from doing so. Just as the General Slocum
ran aground on the shore of North Brother Island the tug-
Wade came up and made fast to her stern. Mr. Schulz:
and Mr. Mueller passed all the children to the tug.

112 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

CHAPTEE VII.
TRAGIC STORIES OF SUEVIVOES OF DISASTER.
Pitiful, tragic, yet quaint because of the youth of some
of the narrators, were storie.s told by some who had been
lucky enough to comae alive out of the floating furnace or
the equally dangerous waters of the Sound.
MOTHER AND BROTHER GONE.
Jolin Eil, 14 years old, was on the Slocum with his
mother and little brother. Eil v/as saved, but it is thought
his mother and brother perished.
"My mother and my little brother Paul and I were with
a big party from our neighborhood," said John. "John
Fishman, of No. 401 Fifth street ; John Gray, of No. 309
East Fourteenth street; Albert Greenwall, of No. 326
East Fourteenth street, and Otto Hans, of No. 310 East
Fourteenth street, were with us. When we left the pier the
deck was packed so with people you could hardly move.
The band was playing, and we were all having a fine time.
"I was standing with some of the boys watching the en
gines, when all of a sudden a big sheet of flame burst up.
through the furnace-room, right iu our faces. My mother's
dress and Paul's dress caught fire, and I grabbed them and
started to run for the side of the boat. There was an awful
panic; I was knocked down in the rush. When I got on
my feet I couldn't see my mother and brother anywhere.

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 113
The whole deck was on fire. I was swept into a corner and
held there by the crowed.
"It seemed to me the people were going over the sides
like a waterfall. The captain kept blowing his whistle, and
I could see lots of boats coming toward us. I found myself
in the water -when the Slocum got near the shore, and I
was picked up by a man in a gasolene launch. I saw lots
of burned bodies floating behind the Slocum. Fishman
and Gray jumped overboard and swam ashore. I haven't
seen anyone else that was with us."
Eil was burned badly on the face and hands. -At
the 138th street station of the elevated road he said he was
going home "to tell his father."
LIFE PRESERVERS ROTTEN.
George Gray, 13 years old, of No. 309 East Fourteenth
street, related his experience.
"I was sitting on the rear of the upper deck with
Otto Hans, of No. 310 East Fourteenth street,
and Albert Greenwall, of No. 326 East Fourteenth
street," said he. "We were just passing out of Hell Gate
when I smelled fire. I looked toward the front of the boat
and saw a big cloud of smoke. Otto, AI and I jumped upon
a seat and grabbed life preservers. They were rotten and
all the cork came out of them. Women and kids were yell
ing around us something awful. Just then a big blaze of
fire came right up through the center of the boat and the
people began to jump- overboard. Some of the women
threw their babies overboard and then jumped after them.
"The first tug that reached us was the Director. It was a
big boat, and came right up close as we were going toward
the island. I jumped on the boat and a lot of people
jumped on top of me. Half of them fell back into the

114 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
water between the tug and the boat. In a minute there
¦were so many on the tug the stern was way down in the
water and the bow up in the air. They kept on jumping
and slipping off the tug and going down. I got hold of
the leg of a little girl who was sliding off, and pulled her
back, and then I sat on her to keep her from being pushed
overboard. "I saw a man on the upper deck of the Slocum throw a
baby way out into the river and then jump after hei. The
baby's hair was all afire. The man went right down. An
other man jumped over and grabbed the baby and swam
with her to the Director, and was pulled up on to the tug
by the captain. The baby was alive, all right. When the
other tugs came up everybody that was left tried to jump on
them, and they jumped on top of one another. Lots of
them fell off and were dro^wned, I saw some girls in the
river swimming toward the island. They were picked up
by rowboats.
"I saw two little girls who could swim sink when a big
wave made by a tug went over them. The women and kids
were crying and yelling so we couldn't hear the men pn the
tugs, who were waving their arms at us for us not to jump.
I saw ten men jump into the river long before the tugs
came, and not one of them could swim. They all went
down. I thought the Director would sink or turn over
when she started for the shore, there was so many on her.
When we got off we were taken in wagons ¦to the elevated
road." SOUGHT NEWS OF FAMILY.
In great mental anguish, Bernard Miller, of No. 95 Sec
ond avenue, called at Police Headquarters in the afternoon
seeking information of his wife and four children. He
said they had been passengers on the General Slocum, and

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 115-
all had jumped overboard when it was no longer possible for
them to remain on board.
"Myself, my wife and four sons, whose ages were three,
six, nine and twelve, were sitting on the first deck," he
said, "when I saw smoke coming up through the deck in
great clouds. The people lost their heads. I grabbed life
preservers and put them on my wife and children, and
helped them over the side of the boat into the water. Then
I put one on and went after them, telling them to make for ,
the shore. The youngest child was in my wife's arms.
AU started for Eandall's Island. I started after them, but
had not taken more than a half dozen strokes when I was
surrounded by a half dozen women, who clung to me and
dragged me under. I had all I could do to save myself
froifl' being drowned by their frantic efforts to hold on to
me. A rowboat came u.p and took us all on board. When
we got to shore I searched for my family, but they were not
to be found."
MUler's hands were swathed in bandages and his clothes
were scorched and burned, showing he had stayed on the
Slocum until he could do so no longer.
couldn't loosen LIFEBOAT.
Nicholas Belzer, of No. 432 East Eighth street, was fran
tic ¦with grief when he went to the pier at East Third street,
looking for his wife and child, who had become separated
from him in the mad rush on the boat.
"I lost track of my wife some time before the fire
broke out," he said, . "and was sitting on the upper
deck when I discovered the ship was on fire. I drew my
penknife and tried to cut away one of the lifeboats. I suc
ceeded in severing the ropes, but when I got that far I dis
covered they were held with wire and were immovable.

116 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
Seeing I could do nothing, I climbed over the edge and
down to the lowest deck. I jumped into the river and
swam ashore. The water^was filled with floating bodies of
those who had been drowned, and I had a hard time from
being drowned myself by persons who would cling io me."
Lucy Hencken, fifteen years old, of No. 162 South
Second street, Brooklyn, was ¦with her mother and her
brother Charles, nineteen years old. When the excitement
started the girl took her mother to the upper deck and then
started downstairs to find her brother. At the bottom of
the stairway she saw three lone babies who had been de
serted, and were in danger of being trampled bn by the
crowd. The girl picked the children up, one by one, and
carried them to her mother. Then she returned to find her
brother. When she got back her mother and the babies had
disappeared. Lucy then jumped into the water and was
picked up by William Major, who was on a boat.
Louis Weiss, ten years old, who lives somewhere in Sixth
street, was another excursionist who apparently was the sole
survivor of a large family. He was with his motlier, his
brothers, Henry, Jacob and Fred, and his sisters, Amelia
and Salome. He saw nothing of them after the first rush.
BRAVERY OF A WOMAN.
Mrs. John C. Hynes, with her t^win sons, George and
Theodore, fifteen years old, arrived at her home in No. 397
East Fourth street, about 4.30 o'clock. She was wet
through, as also was Theodore, for both had had narrow
escapes from death by fire and water.
"I.was sitting on the main deck at the stern," she said,
"with my son Frank, these two boys and a friend. When
the smoke poured up I tied a life preserver on myself and'
ran upstairs, the boys having preceded me, to the hurricane

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 117
deck. There we became separated, and I did not see them.
again until we met on the shore. I stayed on the ship as
long as I could; then I jumped into the water. There
another woman struck me on the shoulder when she jumped.
I held her up by the waist until my strength failed, and
then let her go. She went down,., and when she again came
to the surface I grasped her by the hair and swam as well
as I could with one hand to the paddle-wheel, where I held
her 'head above water until a colored man swam up and
took her from me.
"I don't know who she was, but I recognized her as a,
member of the church. I don't know whether she was
finally saved. Wlien I was relieved of my burden I saw
a rowboat approaching, and sv/am to it, and was taken.
ashore. I had been there but a few moments when Theo
dore swam to the shore near where I was, and a few mo
ments later George was brought to shore on a tug.
"I do not know what became of Frank. About three
weeks ago he broke his leg, and ¦^\'as hardly able to walk.
He was taken out for the first time to-day. I fear the
worst." '
Theodore jumped from the hurricane deck to escape the
flames, and swam to shore, and George jumped to the tug
which brought him to shore.
SAW CHILDREN CATCH FIRE.
Frances Eichter, eleven years old, of No. 310 East
Sixth street, was with her mother and six other children on
the main deck, near the band.
"The first thing I knew," said she, "was a lot of people
yelling 'fire !' and almost in a minute the whole middle of
the "boat seemed burning. The wind blew the flames toward
us, and I saw the dresses of several children catch fire all

118 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
at once. The screaming was something awful. My moth
er called out to me, 'Don't be afraid ! Hang over the side.'
Then she pushed me over the rail and I fell down to the
lower deck, outside, and I hung to the railing with my feet
• and legs in the water. In falling nearly all my clothes
were torn off. I don't know where mamma and the rest of
the children are."
Mrs. Kate Metteer, of No. 338 East Fifth street, had her
six children on the steamer. She and her baby were saved
by jumping upon the deck of a tug. Her children were
Elsie, 15 years old; Albert, 11; Eobert, 10; F!rederick, 8;
WUliam, 4, and George, 3.
"I was sitting on the upper deck with the two smaller
chUdren," said she, "and the others were playing around
ihe boat. When I heard the cry of 'fire !' I yelled for my
children. They ran to me, and I told them to stay near
me and they would be saved. I climbed over the railing,
holding the baby tight in my arm. Somebody loosened my
hold on the stanchion. At that time a ¦tug came alongside
and I fell right on its deck with the baby in my arms. The
other children called after me, but when I looked up they
had disappeared. I was taken to North Brother Island
and from there came home. I got word WiUiam was in the
Lebanon Hospital. I can only hope my other children are
saved." NEWS OF ANOTHER SAVED.
At that point of her story a little girl came to the door
and told Mrs. Metteer that Elsie had been saved and was
in the Lebanon Hospital.
"I was sitting in the stern of the boat -with Nicholas in
my arms," said^ she. "I jumped to the railing and was
going to get into a tugboat, when somebody from the deck
above jumped and landed on my head and shoulders,, knock-

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 119
ing the little one out of my arms. I know my baby must be
drowned. I was rescued by a tug."
"The crew appeared to be undisciplined and unfamiliar
with the workings of the life rafts and lifeboats," said
John Halphusen, sexton of the church. "I was standing
beside the pastor nearly all the time. He did everything in
his power to save the people. I placed my daughters —
Mina, 12 years old, and Clara, 10 — on the top of the pad
dle-box, and kept them there until the tugboat Sumner took
us off."
Mrs. Eleanor Eichenback, of No. 175 East Houston
street, was on the middle deck with her little son, Herman,
in her arms. She said she picked up a life preserver and
placed it around her waist.
"The life preserver caught fire," said she. "There was
a rope hanging over the side of the boat, and I grabbed that.
The rope also caught fire. The fiames of the life preserver
were licking my face. I dropped the baby into the water
to prevent her clothing catching fire. She sank at once.
That is the last I remember. When I became conscious I
was in the arms of a negro who had saved me."
John Muth, of No. 785 East 146th street, and his son,
John, 3 years old, were in a party of ten. Father and son
are the only ones of the party known to have been saved.
Muth told his story in the Lincohi Hospital.
PASTOR TELLS STOEY OF STEUGGLE FOE LIFE.
Having lost his entire family, except his sister, on the
Slocum, the Eev. George P. H. Haas, the pastor of the
church whose outing was attended by such a frightful ca
lamity, was completely prostrated. Mr. Haas lost his wife
and his daughter Gertrude, as well as his mother-in-law,
Mrs. Carl Hansen, and his sister-ia-law, Mrs. William Teti-

120 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
more. Mrs. Tetimore's daughter Edith was also on the
appalling list of the missing. Mr. Haas was under the
constant care of a physician. With his sister, Miss Emma
Haas, he returned to his home about 5 o'clock. He told
this story of the disaster :
"When the fire shot up to the top deck and drove the
crowd back the panic was terrible. The crush from the-
forward part of the boat swept those in the rear along; The
women and children clung to the railing and stanchions,
but could not keep their hold. I, with my wife and daugh
ter, were swept along with the rest.
"In the great crush many women fainted and ffeU to the
deck, to be trampled upon. Little children were knocked
down. Mothers with their little boys and girls ih their
arms would give wild screams and then leap into the water.
We could see boats pulling out from the shore by this time,.
and a faint ray of hope came to us.
"With my wife and daughter I had been swept over to the
rail. I got my wife and daughter out on the rail, and then
we went overboard. I was so excited that I don't remem
ber whether we pushed over or jumped. When I struck
the water I sank, and when I rose there were scores about
me fighting to keep afloat. One by one I saw them sink
around me. But I was powerless to do anything.
"I was holding my wife and daughter up in the water
as best I could, almost under the side of the boat,
when someone, jumping from the rail directly above
me, landed on top of us. My hold was broken and we
all went under together. When I came up my wife and
child were gone.
"With a great effort I managed to keep afloat, but my
strength Avas about gone when a man on one of the tugs
picked me up."

THE SHORE WAS COVERED WITH BODIES.
121

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 123
FIEEMEN, POWEELESS, SAW HUNDEEDS DEOWN.
On the sounding of an alarm for fire from the box at
I38th street and Locust avenue, three engines were sent to
138th street, but these were powerless to aid those on the
burning steamer. Fire headquarters was immediately in- >
formed of the fire, and orders were issued to the fireboat
Zophar Mills to proceed to the place at once from Ninety-
ninth street, where it was tied up.
When the Mills got to the General Slocum, the sight, as
described by the firemen, was one never to be forgotten.
Fire headquarters was informed of the extent of the disas
ter, and the fireboat William L. Strong was started for the
burning Slocum. The Abram S. Hewitt, the Brooklyn
fireboat, was ordered to proceed io Seventieth street, where
she was met by Deputy Fire Commissioner Thomas W.
Churchill, Chief Croker and Secretary Volgenau, who
boarded her and were hurried to the place of the disaster.
When the Mills got four powerful streams on the Slocum
the remnant of the passengers, a hundred or more, were
making a last struggle against the flames. They were to
gether on the forward part of the boat, moving back from
the onward course of the flames.
Men, women and children were huddled on the bow,
while those nearest to the flames pushed toward those on the
bow. Each instant a human being was pushed from the
railing of the boat into the water by the backward sweep
of the maddened crowd.
The crew of the MiUs reported to Chief Croker on the
tragic sight, when the General Slocum careened and went
do^wn. Men and women who had been crowded together
on the bow of the burning steamer were precipitated into
the water, struggling to catch hold of one another, and chil
dren could be seen floating away from the burned boat.

124 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
The Mills steamed as close to the Slocum as she could
and picked up those who could be picked up. Boathooks
were used, and ropes swung to those in the water by the
eager firemen on the Mills. Fire fighters dived to rescue
women and children, and not a few of the rescued were
landed by the Mills at North Brother Island.
Chief Croker and the officials on the Hewitt arrived after
the work of the fire had been done. Strewn about the face
¦of the water for thousands of yards in all directions were
articles of apparel — ^hats, capes, boxes which had contained
luncheon for the picnickers, larger wooden boxes, burning
wood, and here and there a dead body.
F'RIGHTFUL PANIC WHEN FLAMES BURST THROUGH FORWARD
DECK.
Stories of the survivors of the Slocum disaster abound
in thrilling incidents. Miss Clara Stuer, who reached the
home of friends in Seventh street, after her escape, said :
"I was sitting on the upper deck with Miss Millie Mann-
heimer, 40 years old; Miss Lillie Mannheimer, her niece,
9 years old, and Walter, the latter's brother, aged 11. We
had just passed the entrance to the Harlem Eiver, and
were going slowly when Lillie called to her aunt, saying:
'I think the boat is on fire, auntie; see all the smoke.'
'Hush !' replied her aunt, 'jou must not talk so. You may
! create a panic' Lillie would not be silenced, however, and
it seemed but a few moments later when there was a roar
as though a cannon had been shot off, and the entire bow
of the boat was one sheet of fiames. The people rushed
pell-mell over one another, and in the rush I lost track of
my friends. Hundreds of people jumped overboard.
"I jumped over the rail and dropped down to the lower
deck, when I began to dispense with my clothing so that

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 125
I would have a better chance in the water. Then I started
io climb do^wn the side of the boat when I heard a voice
calling to me to hold on a minute. I tumed and saw a
man standing on the bow of a tug whioih was approaching.
T held on, and was soon taken off with a number of other
persons who had been rescued from the boat and from the
water. "The tug then put into the landing on Eandall's Island
and after putting the people ashore went out for another
trip of rescue. As I left the pier I saw what looked to
me 200 bodies, mostly of women and children, along the
shore lying on the ground. Physicians were working over
many of them. In the center of one group I saw the Eev.
George Haas. Several doctors were doing their best to
revive him, and as I stood there he opened his eyes and
looked about. His first words were, 'Where are they ? Where
is my family? Are they saved? Are they dead or alive?'
"I then searched about for my friends, and after a time
I found little Lillie. Beyond being bruised she ¦was all
right. How she escaped she does not seem to know.
"All this time the boat was burning, being surrounded by
tugs which were trying to extinguish the fiames. Lillie and
I then made our way to a boat, which took us over to New
York, and we came down to Miss Mannheimer's house, at
86 East Seventh avenue, but she had not yet reached home."
Bernard Miller of 95 Second avenue called at police
headquarters and went to the Bureau of Information look
ing for his wife and four children. He and his family
were all passengers on the General Slocum, and all jumped
overboard. "Myself, my ¦wife and four sons, whose ages are 3, 6, 9
and 12 respectively, were sitting on the first deck," he said,
"when I saw smoke coming up through the deck in great
clouds. The people on the boat acted as though they had

¦»
126 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
lost their minds. I grabbed life preservers and after put
ting them on my wife and children assisted them over the
side of the boat into the water. Then I put one on and went
after them, telling them to make for the shore. The young
est child was in my wdfe's arms, and she and the three
elder ones started for Eandall's Island.
"I started after them, but had not taken more than half
a dozen strokes when I was surrounded by half a dozen
women, who clung to me and dragged me under. I had
all I could do to save myself from being dro^wned by their
frantic efforts to hold on to me when a rowboat came up
and took us all on board. I searched for my family in
vain. They were not to be found."
Miller's story was told in disjointed sentences, he being
distracted and almost ¦wild with grief.
"We did not go over the side," he said, "until we could
stand the heat no longer, and I was so long on the boat
that I was badly burned about the hands and neck."
Miller's hands were swathed in bandages and his clothes
were scorched and burned.
Among the husbands and fathers who called at the Alex
ander Avenue Station in search of missing ones was August
Schneider, of 322 Stanhope street, Brooklyn. He was a
cornet player in the band that was pro^viding music for the
excursion and had taken his wife, Dora, and three chil-
' dren with him.
"We were playing on the upper deck," said Schneider.
"The band, of which George Maurer was leader, was com
posed of seven musicians. We were seated in the stem
when a whole crowd of people suddenly rushed toward us,
shouting and screaming.
"At least half of them jumped right overboard. It wasn't
until a few seconds afterward that we saw the smoke and
£re. The wind, luckily, was blowing the flames away from us.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 127
"I got my family together and told them to stick close
to me. I took my little Augusta, 3 years old, on my arm
and was just considering the best place for safety when
the deck broke and fell with the ruins. _
"I still held my child, but my wife and the other two
children were torn away from me, and I didn't see them
again, and do not know where they are. I was taken off
by rescuers on a tugboat."
Carrying his 3-year-old on his arm, the cornet player
haunted the station house, examining the bodies. Time
and time again he uttered exclamations of grief when he
thought he recognized the face of his wife, but invariably he
found he had made a mistake.
What had become of the other musicians Schneider said
he didn't know. A violin player, George Dillemuth, who
lives at Fifteenth avenue and 68th street, Brooklyn, was
picked up in the water by two boatmen 300 feet from
shore. Dillemuth had thrown a life preserver about his neck
and jumped from the steamer before she was beached. He
was rescued just as he was sinking. Even in his half-
drowned condition the man mourned the loss of his violin.
One brave mother faced fire and death in attempts to
find and save two of her yoimgest children, who had been
dancing on the hurricane deck. Even after the deck fell
she insisted on keeping up her search. Her clothes caught
fire, her hair burned off and her hands and body were
licked 'by fiames. She would have resigned herself to her
fate had not rescuers pulled her off the vessel.
Mrs. Mary Behrendt, of 88 East Third street^ was the
name of this brave young mother. Her hands done up in
gauze bandages and her hair nearly all burned off, she
entered the Alexander Avenue Police Station still on her
quest for her little ones.

128 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
"Annie, my eldest daughter," said Mrs. Behrendt, "was
sitting witli me on the upper deck, when somebody shouted
'Fire !' We all began to shout 'Fire !' too, although I
couldn't see any at that moment.
"Lizzie and Clara, 10 and 8 years old, were dancing
on the deck above. I ran up there, but couldn't find them.
I pushed my way down again. People were trampling down
each other and screaming and fighting. It was impossible
to recognize anybody.
"The smoke came over us then, too. The deck gave
way and I saw my daughter Annie fall into the water. She
was picked up by a boat, and for a minute I saw the other
people falling into the water. Some were picked up, but
others went down under the pieces of burning wood."

PATHOS AT POLICE STATION.

THIETY-SEVBN BODIES AT ALEXANDEE AVENUE — ^ALL WOMEN
OR CHILDREN.
As early as 13:30 o'clock men bearing on stretchers vic
tims of the disaster began to arrive at the Alexander Ave
nue Station. The station is nearest on the New York!
side to where the accident occurred, and it was hoped at
first that that place would be large enough to contain the
dead. In the anticipation that that would be the place where
the victims would be taken to, a crowd of monstrous size
soon began to collect, hampering the movements of the men
on the dead-wagons.
The arrival of bodies continued to about 3 o'clock. At

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 139'
ihat time thirty-seven victims of the accident — thirty-one
women and six children — ^had been laid in rows on the fioor
of the roll-room. The little tots were laid together against
¦the wall of the room, their little bodies taking up so little
room that they looked from a distance like a lot of clothes |
which had been thrown there. There was not the body j
of a single man among them — all being women and chil
dren. The scenes there, as at the Morgue and at North Brother
Island, were pathetic in the extreme. Coroner Berry tools
charge of the identification there, and it was ¦with the
greatest- difficulty that men could be induced to give the
names and other data required after they had made an,
identification. 1
One man who arrived at the station to identify some;
of his relatives had lost his reason entirely, and had to be
taken to a hospital, and another who had been cured of
stammering found when he tried to talk to Coroner Berry
ihat his old trouble had returned to him again because of
•the fright he had been subjected to. He was forced to
¦jrrite what he had to say.
By 6 o'clock fifteen of the thiriy-seven bodies at this
station had been identified. Most of the identificationa
had been made by men who had learned of the accident
¦ffhUe at work, and had eome directly from their work, in
many eases to leam the worst. Quite early Agnes Dip- j
pert, an elderly woman of 328 East Sixth street, was 1
identified by her son Charles. :
In another instance a man who had identified his wife,
somehow could not remember her first name — ^the excite
ment had banished it from his head. I
Before the afternoon's identifications had progressed verj]
far it was learned that several runners for undertakers were
M the room trying to take advantage in a monetary wajj

E130 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
! of the accident. The police lost no time in getting these
persons out of the place.
About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the crowd in the street
by that time numbered several thousands. In many cases.
men with their heads swathed in bandages were fiocking
in to try to identify those who had been with them on
the boat. Among those who came in who had been injured
on the boat were Frederick Weber of 404 Fifth street and
Paul Liebersohn of 133 East 125th street. Coroner Berry
tried to get something like a coherent account from them
of what they had passed through, but had to give it up,
they being in such a state of mental perturbation that they
could not talk. These scenes continued until far into the
night. Frank Weiss, 1235 Third avenue, came to the Alexander
'Avenue Station looking for his wife and two children.
They were not among the dead there, and he was sent to
ithe Bellevue Morgue, and was again unsuccessful. Later
he came back to the station and told the desk sergeant that
he had found his wife and boy at the Lebanon Hospital.
William A. Conklin, Jr., son of the General Slocum's
chief engineer, visited the station during the afternoon
.trying to ascertain the fate of his father. His father, he
said, had been on the Slocum for eight years. "When he was
asked if he had ever heard his father say that the fire appa
ratus and life-saving apparatus on the Slocum were anti
quated, he replied :
"I often went on trips with my father, and I always
thought the boat was in tip-top shape in every way. No,
I never heard him say that the fire and life-saving appa
ratus were anything but of the very best."
C. Schoepfling of 189 Third avenue, whose wife and two
children were on the Slocum, was almost insane with grief.
iWhen he entered the room in the rear of the station house

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 131
and saw the bodies stretched out in line on the floor he
completely lost control of himself and had to be restrained
by a policeman.
The poor fellow picked out the bodies of three women,
each one of which he said was that of his wife. It was
absolutely impossible for him to express himself intelli
gently, and nothing the police or bystanders could say could
convince him that after all his wife and two little chil-
di'en might have been among the rescued. He finally was
able to prove that none of the three bodies he had identified
as his wife was really she. He was unable to find any trace
of his children, Edward and Elsie, the former 10 and the
latter 3 years of age.
Almost as soon as the first body arrived at the Alexander
Avenue Station, some one brought in a little girl dressed in
red. Who had rescued her nobody knew. She had been
taken to the police station in the arms of a policeman who
was on an ambulance taking several bodies to the station.
She was placed in a chair, where she remained as though
she had been glued to it. The child's little red dress
showed signs of having been wet and her face was smoke-
begrimed. The chair on which she sat was right before the spot
where they began to lay the bodies of the dead. Nobody
seemed to think of the scenes the child was witnessing.
More and more bodies were being brought in, among them
those of six children of her own age. Once she whimpered
a little, and a single tear crept out from one of her eye
lashes and stuck there. She must have sat there for four
hours. Finally she began to go to sleep.
About 5 o'clock a man bolted in. His first glance rested
on the rows of dead women and children on the fioor, and
then, looking up, he saw his little daughter just dozing off
safe and sound on the chair. With a dash that was more like

133 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
a swoop than a run, he made for his little girl. Seizing
her he began to shower kisses oh the smoke-begrimed Ut
tle face, the tears rolling do^wn his cheeks, as he began to
repeat, over and over again :
"My dear Lizzie, my dear Lizzie, how glad I am to find
you." It was with difficulty that Coroner Berry could get the
man, who was a German, to tell that he was Charles Krieg-
ler, Uving at 257 Avenue B. He left the Alexander Sta
tion with his child in his arms to continue with her his
search for her mother and four other children, of whom he
had not yet got a trace.
The police of the Alexander Avenue Station placed all
the members of the Slocum's crew, when they could find
them, under arrest. They were all too ill to lock up and
were sent to Lebanon Hospital under poUce surveillance.
They were William Van Schaick, captain; Edwin Van
Wart, first pilot; Edward Weaver, second pilot; Henry
Canfield, negro, cook; Edward Eobinson, negro, cook;
James Woods, white, cook; WiUliam K. Trimbley, deck
hand.

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 133

CHAPTEE VIII.
HARROWING SCENES AT MORGUE DRIVE MANY TO MADNESS
 RELATI^VES OF VICTIMS, RECOGNIZING THE FEA
TURES OF THEIR DEAD LO^VED ONES, SHRIEK, MOAN AND
SWOON AND BECOME TEMPORARILY INSANE FROM
GRIEF.
In all the crowd of hardened men, inured by long experi
ence in the handling of the dead, calloused by frequent in
timacy with scenes of acute distress, there was not one
among those whose duty called them to service at the
morgue who could witness the horrible panorama of suffer
ing and desolation that passed every minute before his eyes
¦without an aching heart and a fiUed-up throat.
The New York Morgue, with its heartrending record of
sorrowful scenes, has never before in its history been the
theater of such performances as were to be seen there. With
its limited space it could not begin to accommodate the
silent forms which came knocking at its doors, and long
before midnight of the day of the disaster it had extended
its jurisdiction to the long pier of the Charities Depart
ment, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, along .which
stretched two long lines of plank coffins, with an aisle be
tween, down and up which the sobbing fathers, mothers and
chUdren walked in their ghastly search for their dead.
BODIES OF MOTHERS WITH DEAD BABIES.
In those roughly made coffins were forms, the very sight
of which would move a heart of stone. Mothers with their

134- THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
infants so tightly clasped to their breasts that they could
iardly be taken away if anyone willed such a sacrifice ; lit
tle girls, their holiday finery bedraggled by the cruel waters
of the river and scorched by the fiames, some still holding
to their breasts their poor little dolls, and one especially,
a curly-headed little boy, whose dead hands still firmly held
a Uttle tin horse, the leash string of which dangled
pathetically over the edge of the box which held him until
a heartbroken mother or father should come to take him
away. There were strong men, too, whose torn hands and bruised
faces showed only too well that they did their whole-^duty in
ihe great crisis and at last gave up their lives; and there
were white-haired men and women, most of these with peace
written on their faces, for death must have come quick and
mercifully to those who could resist but feebly.
POLICEMEN WEEP AT SAD SCENES.
To these pitiful dead came scores of living with distress
on their faces that it was not good to see. They peered into
ihe coffins with almost insane eyes; a shriek, a moan, th»
sound of a faUing woman, or the hoarse shout of a man who
could not stand it longer, would announce that someone had
found his dead.
And so it had gone all day, and the duty of some men
had called them to hours of these sights. Policemen with
wet eyes but firmly set teeth had stood guard over these
dead and miserable living all night long.
Time and again they had saved women who, crazed ¦with
grief, had made a plunge for the river, for attempts at
suicide had been so frequent on the long death pier that
they had ceased to be a novelty.
Out on the street beyond the pier the police had kept
the anxious searchers in some kind of order, but it had only

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 13S
heen with the greatest difficulty, for such grief as theirs was
not amenable to discipline. But Captain Shire, who did
a giant's work, got the lines formed west of First avenue,
establishing a flanking cordon of his men on either side of
East Twenty-sixth street, and let the searchers approach by
the south sidewalk and go away by the north.
SHAMELESS UNDERTAKERS^ SQUABBLE.
Amid such scenes it was hard to believe that a mercenary
spirit could develop, and yet among the black-garbed un
dertakers who had haunted the pier and the contiguous
streets there had been a shameless rivalry for business,
which even the police were unable to curb. Like "shyster"
la'wyers, the undertakers had their runners and ambulance
chasers out, and there were actual squabbles at times over
the dead.
The horror that a night of vigil unfolded for some was
best illustrated by the case of Charles Ottinger, of No. 91
East Seventh street, and his two grown daughters, Lillian
and Kate.
For hours and hours they stood in the Une waiting their
turn at the coffins, for the ¦wife of the man and the mother
of these girls, with Charles and Emma Ottinger, twins,
aged sixteen years,^nd Andrew and Arthur Ottinger, also
twins, aged seven years, went away on the General Slocum
and didn't come back.
They found them in the boxes on the piers, all five of i
them, and all the solace they got out of the find was that
their dear ones were not disfigured.
FLUNG HIMSELF ACROSS SISTER's BODY.
Henry Hardincamp found his little sister Mary among
the dead. A score of this child's friends were to have
gathered at her home to celebrate her eleventh birthday^

136' THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
and the chUd had talked all the week of the unusual happi
ness of two days of pleasure : a picnic one day, a birthday
party the next.
Henry Hardincamp found the child in her little pine
¦ hox, and he just threw himself across her body and refused
to leave it. He didn't cry — few men at the pier had tears
at their control to help them out — but he fiercely fought the
men who tried to tear him away. He was removed at last,
however, and his sister was sent after him.
' It gave many of those who were searching for their owi |i
a double misery to look in some of those boxes. Take that
box plainly marked No. 209. In it there was a woman of
great beauty with a curly-headed child on her breast, and
they looked so peaceful that it was hard' to believe that
theirs was a violent death.
t A little farther on, in No. 332, was another woman with
a baby in her arms, not so beautiful but fearfuUy pathetic
in the way the head of the little one was tucked under its
mother's chin. It was such things that made many women
faint and thr«w a gloom over some that many years will
not eradicate.
Some of these things threw strong men into temporary
insanity. Albert Troell, of No. 405 Fifth street, went
through the line with his wife Anna, looking for Bert, their
thirteen-year-old boy.
FRENZIED FATHER GOBS INSANE.
They found him at last, and while the mother fell faint
ing on the fioor, the father's eyes took on a queer look, and
he knelt beside the box, chafed the boy's ears, and in a
stern tone ordered him to get up. He evidently thought
the boy was in bed, and he was exasperated with him be
cause he lay there so silent and still.

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 137
His peremptory commands to the lad, uttered in no
¦gentle tones, rang discordantly on ears trained all night
and day to sobs and shrieks of misery, but it was soon un
derstood. One look at Troell showed him to be a madman.
There could be no mistake, and he was gently taken away
by policemen.
In a box near the head of the pier was a woman of middle
age. To this box came a younger woman. She looked for
a second on the dead woman, then leaped to the open door
at the head of the pier and made a dash for the river.
A policeman clutched her skirts and others came to his
assistance. She was hauled back to safety, and restored to
a better frame of mind. She was Mrs. Kate Diamond, of
No. 79 Mangin street, and the woman in the coffin was her
mother, Mrs. Kate Birmingham. An undertaker took the
hody away and the unfortunate woman followed it.
Such scenes were by no means uncommon. Many in a
moment of uncontrollable grief saw a speedy relief in the
river which had cost them so much.'
HORRIFIED DIVERS WEEP WHILE WORKING.
AU through the night and into the gray da^wn men in
diving suits, others "with grappling-hooks in their hands,
stood on the decks of tugs which hovered about the sunken
wreck of the General Slocum off Hunt's Point. Now and
then a man in one of the weird-looking suits would slip
over the side of a tug and sink to the bottom.
Then another diver would appear on the surface. Prob
ably he had come to the surface for rest and air. Probably
he held the body of a woman or the body of a child in his ¦
Tubber-coated arms. The chances were that he had eome
up with the dead, for those divers felt no exhaustion as
ithey groped, .about the bottom of the river among the dead.

,13S THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
As a diver would bring a body to the surface a grap-
pling-hook was placed under it and it was raised to the-
deck of a tug. Some of these bodies were t^wisted and burnt
almost beyond recognition. 'When several bodies were re-
1 covered another tug from which divers were not working
1 would pull alongside and the dead be transferred.
How many dead lie in that charred and sunken hull
cannot even be estimated until every nook and corner of
the shell has been gone over by the divers.
Chief among the divers is John Eice, who figured in the
Boonton catastrophe, in which Diver Oleson lost his life.
He directed the efforts of the other divers, and now and
again he would plunge into the cold waters and go down
among the dead.
The Naval Eeserve launch Oneida came alongside. The
crew of the tugboats were fast becoming fatigued. Every
man of them was ready to faint. It took strong nerve and
manly determination ' for them to continue their work
among the dead.
Eoundsmen Klute and Giloon, with PoUcemen George
Mott, Murphy, Skelly, Grey and Healey, of the Harbor
Squad, worked steadily with the Chapman crew and the
Naval Eeserve crew. During the earlier part of the night
these men got out 217 bodies. This number included
those taken out after the Chapman tug arrived at the side;
of the Slocum.
Then human endurance failed every man. Divers stag
gered about the decks like drunken men. Men on the decks'
fell over each other as they lifted the weight of a child.
More divers and more men were sent. There were many
who were willing to come. There were fathers, brothers
and husbands lining the shore on Hunt's Point, and
every one of them paced like a madman up and down the
sands, some sobbing, some dry-eyed and quiet, others crying.-

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 139
out to the searchers among the dead. These men were
ready to volunteer for the work of diving, or for the work
of grappling the dead with the great iron hooks.
Albert Blenberg and Harry Hier, of the Chapman Com
pany, came aboard. These men are divers of experience.
John Eice greeted them.
"Go down below, men," he said.
Quickly Blenberg and Hier donned the great rubber div
ing-suits. These men were fresh, and they were as willing
as they were fresh. They slipped over the side of the tug
and sank from sight without a word.
SISTEES FOUND EMBEACED IN DEATH.
'When the sun rose these two men came to the surface.
In Blenberg's arms were two little girls, each with her
arms clasped about the other. It was easy to see how these
children had died. They had died together and death could
not part them. Their hair was the same color and their
dresses were alike. These girls were sisters.
Hier had the form of a young ¦woman in his arms. She
might have been the mother of these children. Her body
was found near them, and in her dead -hands she clasped
the dresses of the two little girls. The divers found them
far down in the hold. It appeared that the woman had
tried to save the little ones and had gone to her death with
them. "There are six others under there," said Hier. "They
are buried under the hurricane deck."
Without another word the two divers stepped over the
side and went down to the bottom of the hulk. Again
ihey appeared. Again they v/ent do^wn, and each time they •
appeared they brought the body of some child or some
woman. Some of them were clasped in each other's arms.

140 THE GENERAL SLOCttM DISASTEE.
just as the two sisters were. Others were burned and
twisted. FIGHT FOE SIGHT OF THE DEAD.
Boats alongside took the bodies to the shore. As they
appeared men and women ran forward with loud cries and ;
pleadings. All were sure that the nine would include mem
bers of their families who had gone down to death.
As they fought for a sight of the dead they hoped against
hope that their suspicions would not be correct, and yet they
fought, and it was not curiosity that prompted them. It
was the desire to claim the bodies of those they loved.
Stretched on the sands like winrows in a field of harvest
were the bodies. They were covered, and those who were
not identified were left for a time, while those who were
recognized were removed by the police.
Never did day break on such a scene of grief as maj'ked
the finding of the dead by the divers on Hunt's Point.
Working among the living, with cheering words for them
and prayer for the dead, was Pastor Haas. Never once
did he leave the rows of dead, except when he steamed in
a launch out to the side of the wreck and with gi-appling-
hook in hand waited to assist in bringing some other body
to the surface.
Throngs of old and young hovered about St. Mark's
Lutheran Church on Sixth street hoping against hope that
in this last harbor of information they might find some
thread of hope to raise them in their grief.
Fourteen policemen were posted before the church to
handle the crowd, but they were not forced to any physical
effort. Men and women bent with age, tottering weakly
-on the weary feet that had borne them all night long in
constant search at hospital and Morgue, their wrinkled
faces blank with mi.=ery, their e3'-es run dry of tears ; moth-

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 141
ers whose faces were tortured with anguish and little chil
dren with wondering fear and terror written on their tear-
stained faces, gently jostled one another as they pushed
their way to the church door and made their heart-rending
inquiries. All night long this quiet throng had pressed about the
church, their hopeless silence occasionally broken by some
hysterical exclamation of woe, some tired child's bleating
cry, or the pitiful, broken sob of some aged man or woman
whose children and grandchildren had been swept away in
the horrible disaster. CEUSHED WITH HOPELESS GEIEP.
At the morgues, at the hospitals, at the police stations,
where the dead had been gathered together and numbered
like chattels, there had been wild demonstrations of grief,
but those who gathered about the church were crushed and
hopeless. Their grief was the grief of terrible uncertainty,
breathing unending elegies of misery in their very still
ness and worn-out emotions, and among the ranks of police
men stationed there to check them from crowding and
struggling there was none who had not been moved to tears
of sympathy and who could answer the incessant appeals
in other than husky voice.
To recite each separate story of anguish would fill whole
¦ pages, but there were many singularly impressive expres
sions of grief that could be singled out from the rapidly
succeeding tragic scenes.
Those who passed the "L" station at First street and
First avenue on their way to the church noticed the figure
of an old man standing near the stairway on which tlie
passengers from downtown trains descend. He was George
Heinrich Hansen, of 167 East Fourth street, white-haired
and stoop-shouldered with age.

143 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
JOY MAKES OLD MAN SWOON.
As train after train thundered above his head his feeble
old eyes would peer up the stairway in pitiful expectation,
seeking the forms'^ of his daughter and little grandchild, j
who had- joined the joyous host of excursionists at the Third '
street pier.
As the hours passed the old man grew weaker and weaker,
until finally he was forced to cling to the iron post for
support. Never for a moment, however, did he cease in
his pitiful ¦vigil, and after eight hours of waiting he was
rewarded when a shrill cry of "grandfather!" greeted his
ears and a little form fiung itself into his arms. The shock
of his joy completely overwhelmed the old man and he fell
fainting to the street.
When the old man was revived the little girl told him
that she and her mother, his daughter and only child, had
been saved through the heroic efforts of gallant Policeman
Van Tassel.
As soon as they had been landed on the Manhattan shore
they had hurried to their home to tell of their safety, but
meanwhile the grandfather had gone in search of them
and they had hunted vainly for him at hospital and morgue,
thinking he might have gone there seeking them.
WIDE SYMPATHY FOE PASTOE.
That the few of the Eev. George C. F. Haas' fiock who
were saved from the terrible 'death so many met, feel the
deepest sympathy for him in his bereavement, was shown
when many, as sadly stricken themselves, called at
the rectory, 64 Seventh street, and inquired if he was mak
ing any progress.
The pastor was injured in the back and suffered so from
shock that his life is almost despaired of. He has been in

THE GENERAL SLOOUM AFTER IT WAS RUN ASHORE,
143

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 145
such a critical condition that Dr. Simpkin, who is
attending him, would not allow him to learn of the death
of his wife and his 12-year-old daughter, Gertrude.
Some kept telling off the names of brothers and sis:ters
on their fingers, winding up with a broken sob and a wail
of infantile anguish. Their inherent fear of the bluecoat
was lost in their wild, unknowing grief, and they climg
to the skirts of the policemen's coats, tugging and tugging
to make their questions felt, until many a big fellow had
to wipe his sleeve across his eyes and choke back the lump
that struggled to his throat.
FOURTEEN DEAD IN ONE FLAT-HOUSE.
There is one big five-story flat-house near Dr. Haas' rec
tory, 54 Seventh street, where fourteen bodies have been
taken in the undertakers' wagons that have ominously
rumbled throughout the district.
Every tenant in this big house who survived the disaster
or who failed to go on the excursion, has been compelled
to put on mourning, and the doorbells in the vestibule
are completely draped with the black insignias of death.
Among the dead who have been brought into this house
of mourning are : Mrs. N. De Luccia and her three Uttle
children; Mrs. Tobias Nagal, a young woman who was
about to bless her home with a little one; Mary Clow, Mrs.
Galwiski and her two children, Frederick and Henry
rumbled throughout the district.
In the house next door, 56, two dead bodies were brought
¦in, and fathers, mothers and children are seeking many
missing ones.
¦¦ DIVERS SAW MORE BODIES.
Diver .Dave TuUock came up from the wreck, where he
had been groping around on the port side for half an hour.

146 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
and reported that he had come across a number of bodies
forward of the wheelhouse. These bodies were charred
beyond recognition and so entangled in a network of iron
and wood that it will be impossible to raise them until
ihat side of the sunken steamboat is lifted with chains or
dynamited. He could not make any count of the bodies, as
they were wound together in a crushed mass. Approxi
mately he thought there were more than twenty.
BEINGING UP MORE BODIES.
Divers Peter Gilligan and David TuUock, of the tug
Hustler, brought up fifteen bodies from the wreck of the
Slocum on their first trip to the bottom. The bodies were
found well forward and all in a bunch. The crew of the
tug Quigley, casually casting overboard grappling-irons
while passing up the East Eiver, opposite Eandall's Island,
dragged up the bodies of a man, a woman and a child.
Six bodies were recovered off North Brother Island by
men dragging the shore with grappling-irons. Two of the
bodies were of young girls, two of boys and two of men.
One man was stout, wore a gray suit and tan shoes and had
a handsome gold watch in his vest. The other man was
slender and dressed in black.
Thomas McQuade has been grappling for bodies off
North Brother Island. In all he has recovered thirty-six
bodies. '
A CONCENTRATED TRAGEDY.
This is a concentrated tragedy. Ninety per cent, of the
dead and injured Uve in a territory embracing less than a
square mile on the East Side. It is a quiet, clean neigh
borhood, in which the predominating language is German.
For many years St. Mark's Church has been the center

, THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 14?
of the settlement. The old people have seen their chil
dren marry and take up homes near-by and relationships,
were frequent. That is why in the list of dead it is not
uncommon to find three generations represented — ^the
thrifty old grandmother, the buxom wife and the tow-
headed little babies.
On every hand in their neighborhood the sombre
dead-wagon rattled through the crowded streets, bearing
bodies of the identified dead from the Morgue., And even
while these bodies were being delivered at the homes that
witnessed their departure in life and strength, other bodies
were rolling ashore up along the Sound and the East Eiver
or were being released by divers from the wreck of the
Slocum. The tragedy of the excursion steamer has taken out of
many homes in St. Mark's parish the hope of future sup
port of aged parents. It has robbed hundreds of homes of
the wife and mother, and in many instances has taken
away the sole breadwinner.
In this connection arises the question of the liability of
the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company.
With all the details of the frightful disaster staring at-
them from the pages of every newspaper, from every bulle
tin board, and shouted into their ears by every newsboy,
great crowds have thronged to the various excursion boats
plying the waters of the harbor. Observation of the vari
ous piers from which these boats depart failed to show that
the General Slocum tragedy had frightened the pleasure-
seekers. WATERS STILL CASTING UP DEAD.
Taken all in all the horror is so vast as to be beyond-
the comprehension of the_majority. Only those who' have-

148 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
seen the fathomless misery of it can appreciate how awful
it is. It is enough to appal the stoutest nerve to stand on
the shore of North Brother Island and see body after body
rising out of the swirling waters in an apparently endless
procession. These are the bodies of the drowned — bodies
of women and children. Many of them come to shore al
most entirely denuded of clothing, showing that they had
been engaged in a desperate struggle on the boat before
jumping or being pushed overboard.
How so many bodies came to be found in the paddle-
boxes is explained by the story of Outdoor Superintendent
Doorley, of North Brother Island. He saw the General
Slocum approaching the shore and saw scores driven by the
fire to the tops of the paddle boxes, and from there into
the water.
The big wheels were spinning around with all the force
of the engines behind them. The broad paddles picked up
those who were drawn into their reach, swung them up into
the boxes, and there they lodged until the wheels were
literally choked with corpses. As the fiames spread these
corpses were burned. Many of them were completely de
stroyed. Captain Van Schaick, and Pilots Van Wart and Weaver
are prisoners in Bellevue, all of them having been badly
burned. Former Fire Marshal Freel has been detailed by District-
Attorney Jerome to make an investigation into the cir
cumstances of the starting of the fire.
It has been proved that the life preservers with which
the Slocum was equipped were in such condition that in
many instances a man's thumb nail would rip them open,
and they were filled with granulated cork, which quickly
becomes soaked and loses its buoyancy. These things mil
he investigated.

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 149
THE SCENE AT BELLEVUE.
- At Belle^vue Morgue fifty policemen remained on duty
under Inspector Brooks, helping the visitors who went there
to identify the dead.
One woman, Lena Eowski, who found the body of her
ten-year-old daughter, Donda, among the dead at the
morgue, went insane and was taken to Bellevue, where it
is said her condition is considered hopeless. Mrs. Eowski
knew nothing of the accident until she visited the morgue,
and did not know that her daughter had been on board the
boat. She became so violent it was necessary to plaee her
in a strait jacket.
In the morgue, at North Brother Island, at Eiker's Isl-
.and, and other points where the bodies were being col
lected, the work of photographing the dead went on inces
santly as a means to aid in the identification.
Of the heroism displayed, the insane panic of the fright
ened women and children, and the cowardly cruelty of sel
fish ones who trampled upon others in the fight to save their
o^wn lives when the Slocum was rushing her human freight
to death, but little will ever be known.
The big excursion steamers Cygnus and Sirius, ¦with 1,500'
and 2,000 Sunday School excursionists aboard, sailed close
up to the wreck on their way to the beaches along;
the Sound and hovered about the neighborhood of the disas
ter for some time.
The band of the Sirius played "Nearer My God to Thee,"
and the Cygnus' band played "Safe in the Arms of Jesus."
¦Women and children crowded close to the rails of the big-
steamers, exhibiting the deepest emotion. The same scene
was repeated when the Starin barge Sumner, in tow of the
tugboat E. Levy, was drawn near the wreck and lay-to for
several minutes. /

150 THE GENERAL SLOOUM DISASTER.
THE captain's STOEY.
Captain W. H. Van Schaick, who has been in command
of the General Slocum ever since she was launched, in 1891,
and six other members of the crew were taken to the
Lebanon Hospital. Captain Van Schaick and the first and
second pilots, Edward Van Wart and B. M. Weaver, were
under arrest. Among the others taken to the Lebanon
Hospital were several deck hands, and the cook, Henry Can-
field, a strapping Southern negro, who said he had been on
ihe boat for several seasons.
Captain Van Schaick was suffering from a fractured
leg, contusions of the head and a slight burn. The
fracture was the result of his jumping from the pUot-
house after the boat was beached. He was pulled
from the water by the heroic women on North Brother
Island, he said. Before being taken to the hospital he
made the following statement regarding the disaster, at the
Alexander Avenue Station, where he had been detained for
ihe coroner :
"The Slocum left the foot of East Twenty-third street
at 9.30 o'clock. There had been coUected on board 983
tickets. The boat passed slowly up the river, through Hell
Gate and over toward Sunken Meadows, where the Seawan-
haka was burned in 1880. When close to the Meadows an
, alarm of fire was given. At that time I was in the pilot
house. I jumped down to the deck and gave immediate
orders for fighting the fire. The fire driU was sounded,
and the crew of the boat, numbering twenty-three men,
worked like nailers to get water on that part of the boat
which was burning. UNDEE FORWARD BOILERS.
"The fire was under the forward boilers on the port side,
as I made it out in the excitement. My men were exerting

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 151
jtheir efforts toward keeping the passengers from jumping.
The fire was gaining every instant, and the cries of people
suffering from burning to death could be heard above every
other discordant sound. I got the boat under way direct
for North Brother Island, which was the safest place to
attempt to land. The boat was driven on under full speed,
and pulled up sideways to the shore of the island. Many
had jumped prior to this. Many were jumping every in
stant. My pilots, Edward Van Wart and Edwin M.
Weaver, were doing everything to get safely toward shore,
and Engineer B. F. Conklin stuck in the hold. Mate Ed
ward Flanagan had charge of the fire brigade, but when the
fire spread over all we had to get off the boat. My hat was
burning when I jumped, and I was pulled out of the water
and hauled up on shore under a tree before I remembered
what had happened."
Canfield, the cook, had a theory as to the origin of the
fire. He said to a "Tribune" reporter:
"The first I knew about the fire was when the boat was
opposite North Brother Island. I heard two bells and a
jingle, and I knew that meant there was 'somethin' doin','
for that means back water pow'ful hard. I ran up and
saw there was a fire, and shouted, 'Boys, come up !' I put
on a life preserver and jumped overboard. I can swim, so
when a lot of people got hold o' my preserver, I unfas
tened it and helped them into a boat that came along.
One woman — a handsome one she was — said : 'If you save
my life you won't have to wuk the remaindah of yo' life.'
I'd like to have helped her, but I couldn't. I don't know
where she is. "Where did the fire start ? I think it started
in the porter's closet, where they keeps the waste and oil.
That's a little room do^wn below. I have been in it, and I
don't think it was lined with zinc, as it ought to have
heen."

153 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
The fire, it is said by William Trembly, a deck hand on
the Slocum, undoubtedly was caused by the spontaneous,
combustion of oil and rags in the forward part of the' hold,
where oil was stored. The first thing kno^wn of the fire was
when it burst out in great fury, aided by a quantity of oil
that was carried and by the stiff breeze that was blo^wing. i
Henry Iden, who saved his sweetheart. Miss Swartz, by
holding her to the side of the burning boat after they had
jumped overboard, declared that the fire was due to a stove
on which clams were being cooked, on the deck.
"I was on the lower deck with Miss Swartz," he said,.
"when suddenly there was a burst of fiames from a kitchen
on the deck, where they were frying clams. Without any
warning whatever the flames broke out, and in a minute
were all over the forward part of the deck. I think that
the flames spread so fast because of some overturned oil that
had been spilled on the deck."
The most readily accepted explanation is that an oil
stove exploded in the kitchen while someone was trying to
light it. This is borne out by the statement of Albert
Kolb, of Marion avenue and 201st street, who went down
below decks to get a plate of chowder. Just as Kolb en
tered the pantry, or kitchen, the explosion of the stove took
place, and there was a hurried exit from the room by Kolb,
and the others who were there followed. All of the crew,
from the captain down, escaped. Of these. Captain Van
Schaick, Pilot Edwin Weaver, James Wood and Edward '
Eobertson, deck hands ; Henry Canfield, the cook, and Ed
ward Want, dishwasher, are in the Lebanon Hospital.,*
They will recover.
The crew is said by some to have paid little or no heed
to the cries for help of the Slocum's passengers, but busied
themselves about saving their own lives. It was pointed
out by some of the survivors that if they had provided the

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 153
women and children with life preservers the disaster
would never have occurred in its present immensity.
A MYSTERY TO A WATERMAN.
Why the Slocum was not beached on the Bronx side of
the river is a mystery to watermen. Thousands of per
sons were at hand to go to the rescue if the burning boat
had been kept to the New York shore. This was explained
by the fact that the steering apparatus had given way and
the pilot was unable to control the boat. One man, hov/-
ever, who saw the Slocum come up the river, said that the
-steering gear could not have been out of order, as the Slo
cum was run past North Brother Island, and then turned,
toward it. Many factories line the Bronx shore near where
the Slocum beached, and the North Beach, ferry and the
Health Department pier are there, so that there would have
been any number of men to go out to the help of the
steamer and its load of passengers. There was a rumor
ihat the ferryboat Bronx, which runs from 134th street to
CoUege Point, L. I., had passed the Slocum without paus
ing to give aid. This was denied at the olSce of the ferry
company. Joseph Gillan, who runs a bathing-house at 134th street
and the East Eiver, near where the Bronx docks, saw her
whUe the Slocum was coming up the stream. He says that
there were two barges and a schooner between the Bronx
-and Slocum, and that when the way was clear the Slocum
was going so fast that the Bronx could never have reached
her. Gillan says that the ferryboat v/as fully seven hun
dred feet away frorh the Slocum.
Chief Pilot Edward Van Wart, who was at the wheel
¦when the fire broke out, said :
"I was in the pilot-house with the captain and second

154 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
pilot, Edwin Weaver. The first mate called through the
tube that there was a fire in the stern. The captain imme
diately told him to lower the boats and get the fire appara
tus out. It seemed as though the words were barely out of
his mouth when the entire boat was wrapped in fiames.
"I turned her head with the idea of making the nearest
dock, but saw at once that our cables were burned and that
it would be fatal to attempt a landing without them in the
deep water near the docks.
By this time the heat was so intense that we had to close
ihe windows of the pilot-house. After we beached her we
managed in some way to get to the deck, and jumped into
three feet of water. In doing this the captain hurt his
spine and split one of the bones in his ankle."
THE CEEW OF THE SLOCUM.
Captain Van Schaick was bom in Troy, this State, sixty-
one years ago, and is one of the oldest excursion boat cap
tains plying in New York waters. He has always had the
reputation of being capable and careful, and was consid
ered an expert handler of side-wheelers. Captain Van
Schaick's first pilot was Edward Van Wart, aged 63, of No.
331 West Twenty-first street, Manhattan; his second pilot
was Edwin M. Weaver, aged 28, who lives in Troy; B. F.
Conklin was the engineer, Edward Flanagan the mate and j
Michael McGrann the steward. Captain Van Schaick lived
on board the boat.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

CHAPTEE IX.
BUEYING THE DEAD — FIEST FUNEEALS OF THE VICTIMS —
THE PARISH MOURNS — MANY BLOCKS ARE DRAPED WITH
CRAPE.
The first of the funerals of the dead of the Slocum dis
aster were held June 17, and the bereaved parish of St.
Mark's, from which by far the greater part of the victims
were drawn, was in the deepest mourning from end to end..
The first funeral was that of Mary Becker. There was a
short service in the church, and the interment was in the
Lutheran Cemetery, Queens Borough.
There was no large gathering at the church to attend
this, the first of the funerals of the Slocum victims. Few
seemed to realize that the time for burying had come be
fore many had succeeded in finding their dead. Of all the
persons gathered in the church — and there were nearly a
¦hundred when the funeral took place — there were very few
who were not seeking news at the bureau of information
which was established, of their missing relatives or friends.
The search for the missing was kept up all day long, and
even while other funeral services were being held in the '
darkened church and the hearses were carrying the dead
to the cemeteries grief-stricken men and women were beg
ging for some word at the church door, and in the majority
of instances, learning nothing, would make the journey to
the Morgue and seek again among the dead, then back to
the church again to see if something had not been heard
there at last.

I

156 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
CENTER OF CITY'S GRIEF.
Throughout the city there is mourning, but the seat of
grief is in that section of the lower Bast Side, centering
; about St. Mark's Lutheran Church, in East Sixth street.
• As quickly as the bodies were identified at the Morgue by
families or friends they were removed to their homes, and
in this section there was scarcely a house without its sombre
sign of mourning at the door. There were few persons in
the streets, which presented the appearance they might have
on a quiet Simday. Life there seemed at a standstill.
When the survivors left their houses it was to go to the
Morgue or to the church itself, where a bureau of informa
tion has been established, to ask for tidings of the missing ;
for in many families more than one went to death on the
General Slocum — ^in many instances four or five, in some
as many as nine from a single household. In a block of
sixteen houses, eight were counted with flags draped with
crape at half-mast. SCHOOLS IN MOURNING.
Superintendent Maxwell, of the Board of Education,
after receiving a report of the pupils of the school who
went on the ill-fated excursion, has ordered that the gradua-
. tion exercises in the lower East Side schools be abandoned
and that memorial exercises be held in their stead.
Mayor McCIellan, Commissioner McAdoo and Dr. Dar
lington, who have all been in the places where they were
most needed since the holocaust, were busy seeing that the
best arrangements under the circumstances were being made
to handle this unlooked-for situation.
The Mayor has appointed a committee of citizens to re-
¦ceive contributions to be used to care for the needy, to help

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 157
them bury their dead, to see in those cases where the weaker
have been left that they shall not want.
And he is making a careful inquiry as to the causes of
the disaster. The District Attorney has set on foot an in
vestigation, and Secretary Cortelyou, of the Department of
Commerce and Labor, has reached this city from Wash
ington to take a hand in fixing the blame.
FINDING MORE BODIES.
With da^wn there was no diminution in the activity of
the workers on North Brother Island. Divers of the Dock
Department were making descents into the wrecked hold of
the Slocum. They report that there are still many bodies
burned beyond recognition in the waist of the boat, where
the victims were buried when the superstructure and the
upper decks, their supports burned away, collapsed and
carried all of the excursionists in that part of the boat into
the seething hull. All night long Diver John Eice and
Diver Bob Eussell, who have worked in the hull with only
short intervals for rest, say that they cannot tell what num
ber the dead amidships will reach.
DIVERS BRING BODIES TO SURFACE.
Diver Eice recovered eighteen bodies in a very short time,
and most of them were so burned and mutilated as to make
identification a fortunate chance.
Divers Blumberg and Hier went io the assistance of Eice
and Eussell, and in the light of flaring gasoline torches and
searchlights on the poUce boats and tugs the odd-looking
black figures dipped beneath the surface of the water time
after time, rising to the surface more often than not with a
body.

158 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
All that is to be seen of the wrecked boat as she lies on
her side off Hunt's Point are the upper part of the star
board paddle-wheel box, a section of smokestack and a
portion of the walking-beam.
MANY BOATS ABOUT THB WEECK.
There were many boats about the wreck all night, police
boats, tugboats, rowboats and private boats bearing curi
ous persons, and these latter were moving about every
where, getting in the way continually of those who were
present only to help, to do what little they could to have
this grewsome task at an end and aU the outward and
visible evidences of the holocaust done away with.
The Merritt & Chapman's wrecking tug Hustler has an
chored near the ¦wreck, and it was from her decks that the
divers descended into the water and went about iheir work
of recovering the bodies.
No one is able to estimate how many dead there must
still be at the bottom of the river along the shores of the
island, but always at ebb tide bodies are recovered by the
score. During half an hour at ebb tide one night seven
teen bodies were recovered. Coroner O'Gorman said that
he believed the river still contained 200 bodies.
BODIES CAEEIED OUT TO SEA.
The divers say that beyond doubt some bodies must have,
been carried out to sea. The appearance along the water
front of charred bodies as far south as Jefferson street
wx)uld add weight to this statement. Those bodies may
never be recovered, and the men who have worked about
North Brother Island said that it would be a week before all
of the bodies could be taken from the hold of the steam
ship and from the bottom of the river in its -vicinity.

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 159
Coroner O'Gorman was on the island until he dropped
from exhaustion at midnight. He had been working in
his shirtsleeves, with only two hours' sleep, numbering the
bodies arid docketing the valuables found on them, since
the disaster happened. WORKERS COLLAPSE.
Others, men who had kno^wn no rest and sought none,
dropped of exhaustion and slept on the shores of the island,
wherever they happened to fall, near the bodies of the dead.
Police boats guarded the wreck, and at the orders of the
District Attorney's office, it was said, allowed no one to
come near the wreck who was not engaged in the work of
raising from it the bodies of the women and children in
its hold. SIGHTSEEES HAUNT SCENE.
In contrast to the bitter work going on at the wreck and
on the island was the attitude of the sensation seekers,
morbid persons of all classes who put in an appearance
nnblushingly at such times as these.
Yachts, launches and rowboats visited the wreck, and for
ihe most part the occupants merely stared and said noth
ing, but some of them were laughing and talking ani
matedly as they passed over the grave of 600 fellow human
beings, perhaps more.
The police became more strict in the questioning of those
trying to land on the island, and the consequence was that
the crowd of morbid women who had sat on the rocks dur
ing the day was much diminished.
Many of the sur^vivors whose families and friends were
still among the missing visited the island, but in the rest
lessness of grief soon turned away again and returned to the

160 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
section where almost everybody had his dead to brood
over. Here there was little sympathizing one with another..
Almost every one had his or her sorrow, and bore it silently
in a dazed fashion that in most instances grew more pro
nounced as the day went on.
The dawn made the streets the dreariest spectacle the city
has ever seen. Sorrow seemed concentrated within a few
blocks. During the early morning a drizzling rain fell,
but this made little difference to the sorrowing families.
The crowd before St. Mark's Church appeared to be as large
as ever, and stood silently, the women with shawls drawn .
over their heads, the men with coat collars tumed up and
hands thrust into their pockets. Now and then the entire
gathering would sway forward as if by a common impulse,.
then would resume its stoical attitude without sound or
motion. At times a woman would scream, and the rest
would look up inquiringly for a moment, then drop their
eyes again to the sidewalk.
ASKING FOE NEWS AT THE CHUECH.
Two or three dim lights bumed in the vestibule of the
church, where the Eev. Mr. Feldman, of the German Luth- *
eran Church in Seventy-ninth street, had established his
bureau of information. THE EEV. ME. FELDMAN COLLAPSES.
For over thirty-six hours the Eev. Mr. Feldman kept to
his self-imposed task of giving the information and com
fort he could to the survivors who had lost members of their
families in the wreck, but he became so worn out that
human nature could no longer stand the strain, and he col-

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 161
lapsed. He was attended by a physician and put to bed in.
a nearby house, other volunteers taking up his task.
One by one the persons waiting outside would file into the
vestibule and past the small deal table on which lay the list
of the dead, the injured and the rriissing ; messages given to
some survivor, perhaps by a dying comrade, for his family ; ,
and trinkets, a few, which had been picked up by those
who were saved and which it was thought might be claimed
here. But as those who had asked their questions and received,
as was the rule, the shake of the head and the few kindly
words of the clergyman, which told that nothing had been
heard of the missing one, or the confirmation that the one
who was sought was dead, filed out of the church to let
others take their place, there was no appreciable diminution
in the waiting crowdt SBAECHEES DAZED.
The grief of the neighborhood showed no signs of lessen
ing. At first the calmness of the survivors was astonish
ing; afterward there was no mistaking this apparent calm
ness — it was infinity of despair which does not express itself
externally. It was hard for the clergyman to understand many of
those who asked for the missing. Many were so dazed by j
grief and loss of sleep that they could not remember the
names of their children, their fathers or mothers, brother»
or sisters, as the ease might be.
POLICE AT THE CHUECH. \
A squad of five policemen in charge of a sergeant was
stationed at the church, but they were needed only

162 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
±0 say a kindly word now and then and to lend a helping
hand when a woman would stumble blindly up the church
steps. There was no disorder in the stricken.
A white-haired old woman, Mrs. Ella Wormstick, told a
policeman that she herself had gone to the Morgue and
had found the body of her grandson, Albert Wormstick,
and that of her daughter-in-law, Louise Wormstick.
HER GRANDSON IS HOME AGAIN.
"My grandson is home again," she said, "and my daugh
ter-in-law is home again, too. We three are alone in the
house, because I can't find my son or my granddaughter."
"If they have not been heard from, perhaps they are still
alive," the policeman suggested.
LIGHTS BURNED FOR THE DEAD.
Through the drawn blinds of the majority of the houses
faint lights glimmered at night, and the few persons going
through the streets knew that in the room with each of those
lights was a dead body.
Crape hung on the doors of most of the houses. On the
door of one tenement house hung thirty-five streamers. But
this did not seem so appalling as to see on the door of a
small house, in which only one family lived, seven streamers
of crape.
To see one streamer was uncommon; on most of the
houses appeared four or five.
DEATH-WAGONS B^VBRYWHERE.
Undertakers' wagons filled the streets, drawn up before
the doors of most of the houses. Three undertakers of

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 163
the section had charge of the arrangements for most of the
funerals, and they said that it would take a week before
all the dead now accounted for could be buried. They were
at this work night and day, but it was impossible for them
io go ahead more rapidly.

OTHER CHUECHES THEOW OPEN THEIE DOORS.
Dr. Morris, pastor of the Seventh Street Methodist
Church, offered the stricken people the use of his church
for funerals. St. Augustine's Protestant Episcopal Church,
in Houston street, made the same offer, and it was expected
that every church in the neighborhood, of whatever denomi
nation, would make a similar offer.
Most of the dead were buried in the Lutheran Cemetery
on Long Island. POLICE PREPARE FOR FUNERALS.
Inspector Max Schmittberger, accompanied by Captain
McDermott, of .the Fifth Street Police Station, in which
precinct the desolated section lies, went to Police Head
quarters and talked with Chief Inspector Cortright about
what arrangements should be made for police protection at
the funerals.
It was finally decided that ten policemen should be de
tailed to each funeral to handle the large crowds which were
sure to be present. This necessitated the detailing of
squads from all over the city.
Inspector Schmittberger brought with him to-Headquar-
ters a fairly complete list of the missing, the best which it
had been possible to draw up.
Captain McDermott, of the Fifth Street Station, who has

164 THE GENERAL SLOCUJVt DISASTER* i
the reputation of being one of the most cheerful Irishmen
oh the force, was deeply moved.
"They're taking my best citizens away from me," he said,
and he would not trust himself to speak further.
ANXIOUS TO GIVE AID.
The Eev. Mr. Holier, of the Jersey City Lutheran
Church, who began a collection for the needy among the
survivors who have relatives to bury, received over $700
before he left the church, worn out.
Before daylight went many who were anxious to give, but
there seemed to be no one who was ¦willing to take the i^e-
sponsibility of receiving the gifts offered.
It was very pitiful to see poor men and women, dressed in
rags, go to the church and tender their mite, often no more
than a five-cent piece, saying:
"I want to help a little."
*¦ The police sergeant, to whom they were always finally
referred, told them to come again a little later, when the
Eev. Mr. Holier would have retumed and "would accept
their help thankfully. LOOKING FOE HIS WIFE.
Joseph Schmittberger came to the church looking for his
xwife. He was so dazed that he found difficulty in recaUing
her first name, and could describe her only vaguely. He
had his twelve-year-old son with him, who was rescued from
the buming Slocum. The boy said that he was one of the
first to jump, and that he was picked up by a boat before
he had been in the water many minutes. He described see
ing his mother, for the last time, reach up and wrench a life
preserver from the racks. He said that the life preserver

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THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 16*??
tore in two pieces and that something looking like sawdust
poured out of it.
After that, the boy said, he was separated from his mother
and saw her no more.
PASTOE HAAS OUT OF DANGEE.
The pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, who was
saved, but whose wife and daughter went down with the
boat, and who was in a critical condition, is now said to be
out of danger.
A trained nurse from BeUevue Hospital has been witk
him constantly ever since he was led home half crazed..
His wife's body has been identified and brought to the
house; his daughter is still among the missing, and her
body in not in the morgue.
He is still seriously ill in bed. The elders of his church,.
some of them dead, and the others taken up with their o^wo.
grief, can do nothing to attend to the church and to the
throng of survivors which is always asking for news.
OEPHANED CHILDEEN GRIEVE.
The sounds of lamentation from the houses where the
dead lay were audible in the street. A little child sat in
the corner of a courtyard, a tot no more than four years
old, who cried softly all the morning through, untU a
woman, hearing her, took her up and carried her to her own
house. Her mother was among those missing, and she had
had no care and been without food since the day of the
disaster. '
It is in these little inside courts that the pitiful scenes
are to be found. Here sit the women, their stoical German;
faces expressionless, some of them ¦with babies on their

168 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
arms to whom they attend out of habit, thinking of other
children who are among the dead.
They say little, these women. At times the sound of
sobbing wiU bring one to her feet, and she will enter the
tenement and go to whomever is grieving.
RECEIVING TIDINGS OF THE MISSING.
Into these gatherings of silent women a man would go
now and then and say something to one of them, whereupon
she would arise and go to the church seeking confirmation
of the report she had heard. It might be that she had
heard of the finding of the body of her own chUd or of her
sister. It was at these times that grief would find outward ex
pression, when a woman would sink into a pew in the sug
gestive darkness, and fill the echoing church with her sob
bing. PASTOE HAAS' MESSAGE.
One of the clergymen might go to her and tell her to be
of good cheer.
To all a copy of a message from the pastor was given.
It read:
"In a common loss we have a common hope. I wish I
could be with you all, but I am stricken just as you are."
ARRANGEMENTS AT THE LUTHERAN CEMETERY.
Many additional grave diggers have been employed at
ihe Lutheran Cemetery, at Newtown, Queens Borough,
X. I., to prepare for the burial of the dead. The superin-
iendent said that already 100 applications had been made

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 169
for the burial there of the Slocum's victims, and that other
applications were coming in constantly.
He also stated that for each succeeding day for a
week applications for burials have been made. Every
thing is being done at the cemetery to facilitate this sad
work. THE CROWD AT THE MORGUE.
The crowd at the improvised morgue on the Charities
Department pier, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth street,
was very large. The force of police stationed there, how
ever, was maintained. The most noticeable feature about
the morgue pit was the unrestrained grief of those look
ing for the bodies of family or friends.
There was little open demonstration on the pier yester
day, but there was scarcely an identification unaccompanied
hy a heartbreaking scene.
For one thing, there were fewer bodies, and on this ac
count the affair of death did not seem so common. In ad
dition the searchers had been under the strain one day
longer, and they were just that much nearer the breaking
point. EIGHTY-FIVE BODIES LEFT.
There were eighty-five bodies remaining on the pier, and
duriiig the greater part of the day a crowd of between 300
and 400 men and women were passing and repassing in front
of these, going about the work of identification. All but
sixty of the bodies then in the morgue had been identified
before the pier was closed at midnight, but the Charities
Department boat Fidelity came down the river during the
early morning with twenty-five bodies from North Brother
Island. The work of embalming the remaining bodies was begun

170 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
early, and by the time the. pier had been reopened, seven
ty-five bodies had been attended to.
EMBALMING THE UNIDENTIFIED DEAD.
This work was given to one undertaker, who, with his
assistant, worked at the task for more than five hours dur
ing the early morning. It was done at the command of
Commissioner TuUy, who, after examining the condition of
the pier the night previous, deemed it necessary.
FINDS ONE CHILD, TWO MISSING.
Paul Liebemow, of 133 East 125th street, went to the
pier and identified the body of his little daughter, Hannah
Christina. When he reached the coffin and saw the child
he collapsed and had to be carried to one side and attended
by one of the Bellevue Hospital assistants, who are con-
iStantly on the pier for just such emergencies as these.
When he had somewhat recovered, he said that he had
gone to the picnic with his wife and three chfldren. His
wife and he had been saved.
couldn't pull life preser-vees down.
"We couldn't pull the life preservers down. They
wouldn't come out of the racks, and after struggling with-
them for a time we had to give up the attempt. The man
ner in which the majority of the men conducted themselves
was brutal and disgusting. They knocked women down
and trampled upon them in their efforts to reach the rail."
MISTAKES IN IDENTIFICATION.
Terrible mistakes, which add to the horror of the situa
tion, were made in identifying the bodies.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 171
William A. Eichter, an employee of the Department of
T5^nance, went to the pier accompanied by A. P. Hill, his
brother-in-law, of 133 Meserole street, WiUiamsburg.
Hill went to the morgue the day before and saw the
'• bodies of two little girls who, he was certain, were the
daughters of Eichter. Eichter was too prostrated to visit
the pier that night, and when he arrived the next morning
and was confidently led by Hill to a certain pine coffin
iie was scarcely able to walk unsupported.
Those in the place noticed that something was wrong,
for Hill, a surprised look on his face, was leading his
hrother-in-law from coffin to coffin until at last he went to
an attendant and said that he was unable to find the bodies.
The attendants tried to tell him that he was mistaken,
,and that it was not Eichter's children after all whom he
¦had seen, but Hill was certain that he had been right.
BEREFT FATHER WANTED TO DIE.
Edward Screcher, of 144 Essex street, found the body
of his nine-year-old daughter, Elsie, among those on the
pier. The police, noticing his actions on entering the pier,
watched him closely.
When he saw the charred body of his daughter he drew
, a lot of papers from his pocket — deeds, bonds and a life
I insurance policy, his entire fortune, and threw them into
the coffin on his daughter's body.
"Here's all I have," he said, musingly; "ifs no use any
more," and walked toward one of the sliding doors in the
side of the pier, where one of the policemen caught him
and led him to the coroner's temporary office, and afterward
took him home to get a permit for the removal of the body.

178 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

CHAPTEE X.
IN COMMON GRAVE — PLANS TO BURY THB UNIDENTIFIED
DEAD OF THE SLOCUM  100 MINISTERS GATHER.
At a meeting of clergymen held at the St. Mark's Luth
eran Church on Bast Sixth street resolutions were taken
regarding the burial of the dead of the General Slocum
and memorial services, and expressions of sympathy were
received from ministers representing churches of all de
nominations. The Eev. Dr. Joseph J. Herschman, presi
dent of the New York State Ministerium, conducted the
meeting, which was opened by a prayer by the Eev. Dr.
Hoffihan, of Brooklyn.
In his opening speech the Eev. Dr. Hoffman said that
they were gathered together to give an outlet to their feel
ings of sorrow, and that he would call on the Eev. Dr.
Dawald to read a resolution on that subject. The first topic
then brought up was upon burying the dead, of whom, at
the very least, said Dr. Herschman, there would be over five
himdred. On this subject Dr. Joseph Lawton expressed
the feeling of the meeting that the funerals, whenever pos
sible, should be held at the homes of the bereaved fiami-
lies. He hoped that the funerals from the church would
be of as private a character as possible, in order to avoid'
the gathering of large assemblies, who might give vent to
an undue expression of grief. He concluded by making
an appeal to all ministers of his own or any denomination

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 173
to send their cards offering their services to Dr. Hersch
man. Dr. Herschman said that among others the Lutheran
Cemetery had offered a plot in which might be buried all
who were unidentified or whose relatives were too
poor to defray funeral expenses. The meeting voted that
ihe offer be accepted and that a service be held within a
few days for the burial of the unidentified.
Among the first of those who rose to express their feel
ings of sympathy and sorrow was Dr. Huntington, of Grace
Church. He said:
"I am here to convey to you the Episcopal Church's and
my personal expression of sorrow, and to extend to you
whatever aid is in my powder and in that of the staff of
Grace Church."
Dr. Herschman said: "The brightest ray in this our
dark hour is the fraternal sympathy not only of Protestant
churches, but of the Church of Eome."
At this point Eabbi Silverman, of the Temple Emanu-El,
arose and said :
"I eome to you as a minister of God to express the sym
pathy of my people. We feel and share your loss. It is
our misfortune, not yours alone. Where we can help we
must help, and we will help."
Dr. Herschman thanked Eabbi Silverman heartily. Fol
lowing came similar speeches by representatives of the Nor
wegian Church, the Howard Methodist Episcopal Church,
the Confederation of Churches, who offered the services of
their offices to facilitate the communications between the
various ministers engaged in the work; the pastor of the
Presbyterian Church on the southeast corner of Second ave
nue and Second street, who said that the members of his
congregation felt that they were more deeply affected by
ihe disaster than any of the outside churches, and a repre-

174 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
sentative of the Eev. Dr. Hippie, of the West One Hundred.
and Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church.
Letters tendering sympathy and assistance from Arch
bishop Farley and the Presbytery of New York were then
read. One of the most impressive features of the meeting was-
the custom of the Lutheran Church body of casting their-
assenting votes by rising and singing the first verse of the
German hymn, which, translated, begins :
"Who knows how near our end may be ?"
The chorus of men's voices without organ or other ac
companiment was singularly deep, mellow and impressive.

THE ENGINEEE'S STOEY.

conklin, of the slocum, tells of the disaster — his^
assistant's bravery.

Chief Says That Brandow Stood at the Throttle in the-
Midst of the Flames — Says That He Ran the Pumps
and That He Did Not See Any Hose Burst — Impos
sible to Get at the Lifeboats, He Declares, Because of
Crush Near Them.
Chief Engineer B. F. Conklin, of the General Slocum,
who is wanted by Coroner Berry, of the Bronx, to tell hi&
story of the disaster, is ill from the effects of the terrible
experience through which he passed. Speaking about it
lie said:

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 175
"I would like to forget that fearful thing if I could, and
thus far have made no statement about it. I have no theories
to advance and cannot tell you exactly where the fire started.
The boat was comfortably filled, though not packed, as we
were licensed to carry 2,500 passengers and there were about
1,600 aboard. We proceeded up the bay, and about 10 :30'
o'clock, when we were opposite 138th street, the first mate
approached me as I was standing in the engine room talk
ing to my assistant, Everett Brandow.
"His face was deathly pale, but though he was excited
he was not afraid. He said that a fire had been discov
ered forward, and I at once ordered him to lay the hose
while I went to the pumps, first notifying the captain, who
was in the pilot-house, by calling to him through the
speaking tube. I told Brandow to stand near the engine
and not to leave it, and he obeyed me.
"In less than a minute water was being poured on the
flames, but it did not seem to check them in the least. Two
minutes or so later the fire alarm sounded and some one
on deck cried 'Fire !'
"Instantly there was a roar as the terrified passengers
arose like one person and made a rush for the stern. Never
shall I forget the horror of that scene and the terrible con
fusion that followed. There was no checking that frenzied
crowd. Most of the crew were busy fighting the flre, and
those who were on deck were unable to calm the fears of the
women and children. The captain rang the bell for a full
head of steam and the boat shot forward like a racehorse.
"A thick volume of smoke rolled from forward and filled
the lower part of the boat. I was compelled to cover my
mouth and nose with my arm in order to breathe. Mingled
with the smell of the burning paint and wood was the sick
ening odor of burning flesh. The women and children
rushed about as though bereft of their senses. Mothers-

176 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
,grasped their children and rushed to the side of the steamer
and jumped into the water only to drowm". I saw several
children with their clothing on flre and their mothers vainly
trying to put out the flames with their hands. I never saw
fire spread with such rapidity, and in less time than it has
taken for me to tell you this, the whole forward part of the
vessel was in fiames.
"The boat had been newly painted, and this, of course,
made it burn more rapidly. Those who were on the lower
deck rushed aft and many children were knocked down and
trampled to death. Try as I can, it is impossible to erase
that scene from my memory. When I close my eyes at
night I can see the struggling crowd, the dead, upturned
faces and floating bodies. I can yet hear those agonizing
and piercing screams and feel the scorching flames.
"I realized that our only safety was to beach the boat,
and I knew that North Brother Island was the only place
to do it. We could not turn back and beach on the Mead
ows, for we were above them, and I was fearful that we
might strike a rock in Hell Gate. Had this happened the
loss of life would have been greater, for no one, not except
ing a good swimmer, could have kept afloat in that swift
water. "We had eight lifeboats and two rafts aboard, but it was
an utter impossibility to get near them, for the crowd was
so dense about them that it would have taken a hundred
men to push the frenzied persons aside and launch the
boats. It all happened so suddenly and the flre spread
with such rapidity that in less than fifteen minutes after it
was discovered the boat was in fiames from stem to stern.
"At intervals the captain called through the speaking
tube asking how the fire was progressing, and Brandow
kept him informed. I stayed at the^umps, for I did not
dare to leave them, fearing that they might break down or

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 177
¦stop. When the boat was' beached and I left the engine-
joom they were still working. If the hose was rotten and
burst, as has been stated, I knew nothing of it, for the
pumps worked regularly.
"It has also been said that the life preservers were old
and rotten. We carried a full complement of preservers.
They were such as are required by law, and if they were not
sound and in ihe condition they should have been, then it is
up to the inspectors, for the boat had been inspected only a
short time before the flre, and everything was pronounced
all right.
"Just before the Slocum was beached the engine-room
was in flames, and the large mirrors in it fell with a crash.
I looked for Brandow, and he was still standing near the
ihrottle, with the flames all about him. The heat was in
tense, but I did not seem to feel it much.
"When the boat gTounded there was a terrible crash as the
upper decks gave way, and for a moment I felt sick, for I
knew that many people were caught beneath it. Brandow
stopped his engines and we made our way with difficulty
•aft. Here there were a number of women and children
who beseeched us piteously to save them. I did my best to
calm them and told them they must jump overboard. Just
then a tug came up alongside, and a rush was made for it.
"I was carried over with the rest and felHmderneath the
struggling mass. I arose, and when I reached the shore I
saw Captain Van Schaick and Pilot Van Wart standing in
the water taking out bodies which were floating all around
us. I assisted in the work as long as I co-aid. Brandow
was badly burned about the head and neck, but he escaped.
He and I were the last of the crew to leave the boat."

178 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

CHAPTEE XI.
THE GREAT BURIAL DAY.
Saturday, June 18th, was Black Saturday in the Parish
of St. Mark's Church, on the East Side^ as it was the day
selected by a large number for the burial of their dead.
Streets were given over wholly to the funerals of thedead
of the Slocum disaster, and barred to all other traffic. A
hundred houses were fllled with mourning men, women and
children ; every hearse and funeral coach that could be gath
ered from all the boroughs of Greater'New York andJrom
far-away New Jersey packed the streets of the tiny parish,
or moved in slow procession across the new East Eiver
Bridge toward the Lutheran Cemetery.
The day and the scenes that made it memorable will
never be forgotten by the people of New York; the scar it
has left is ineffaceable.
To one who passed through the streets of the stricken
village hidden away on the Bast Side and comprising
within its area less than ten squares, the impression was
strangely weird and unreal. New York has been sadly
stricken before, but never has a blow of this sort fallen.
Vt^ith such fearful force upon an area so narrow and re
stricted. This very fact had the effect of adding to the deep, keen
intensity of the grief of the sorrowing people of the Parish
of St. M'ark's. Their griefs and sorrows were interlaced

td !»¦
a a rt
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«o rt Uo
' 6) d

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 181
in one complete web of woe, and the entire section lay be
neath a single pall. STEEETS HBAESB-FILLED.
More than a hundred funerals were held in the Parish of
St. Mark's, and the streets were flUed from early morning
until late at night with passing hearses. Such was the
strange and unusual condition brought about by the great
number of dead and the scarcity of hearses that no deflnite
hour could be determined upon for the funeral services,
and the mourning relatives and friends were forced to wait
by the side of the dead until a hearse or train of carriages
returning from the Lutheran Cemetery made it possible for
the body to be removed.
Little white hearses, bearing, in many cases, two and
three white caskets, marked the saddest phase of St. Mark's
Black Saturday, for the children who died in the holocaust
far outnumbered the women, while only twenty-three men
met death.
The Parish of St. Mark's was given up wholly to the
burial of its dead. There was but little business transacted..
The streets were made gloomy by masses of black across
the fronts of the buildings, while the hundreds of half-
masted flags were almost covered with crepe. Every street
was thronged with people who stood about the houses from
which the bodies were being brought.
SOME VICTIMS NBVEE FOUND.
Frequently they noted a single carriage following two-
or more hearses, the carriage containing a father and hus-
-band whose entire family had been wiped out by the catas
trophe. In scores of cases the grief of the survivors follow
ing their dead was made bitter by the fact that the dead

182 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
they followed to the cemetery were but a part of their loss,
and that others as dearly loved had never been found.
There were rows of dwellings in the Parish of St. Mark's
with a hearse at every door. In some houses a burial serv
ice was being read on every floor, and the hearses stood
before the door three and four deep.
The day was dominated by grief and the sincere, tender
pity of those in touch with the sorrows of the bereaved.
Bearded men standing at their closed shop doors bowed
their heads and wiped away the tears that started to their
eyes. Women of another race and religion from those
afflicted clasped their children to their arms and wept loudly
as the long line of little white hearses passed them.
Into the very heart of the grief-stricken parish passed the
funeral procession of the unidentified dead early in the af
ternoon, and hundreds who had been unable to find trace
of the dear dead followed the two tiny white hearses' and
fourteen black hearses as they moved slowly toward the
church, throwing the fiowers they bore under the feet of the
horses and beneath the wheels.
A great throng of sobbing women crowded around these
hearses containing the bodies of those they fondly believed
to be their own children or relatives, and the scenes here
were the saddest of the day.
The funerals began at 8 o'clock in the morning through
out the parish. Within an hour services had been read
over twenty-eight bodies, and the stream of hearses and
.carriages began to move toward the new Williamsburg
Bridge. In a short time the outgoing funerals met those
returning to the city, where the hearses would be filled
again with the bodies of other victims and hurried away to
the cemetery.
Over the entire parish there resounded throughout the
flay the sad, mournful strains of the Lutheran funeral

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 183
hymn, "What God Does is Well Done." There were many
bands scattered throughout the parish, "playing the soul of
ihe dead away," as the German expression is, and many
women who had restrained their emotion bravely, broke
do^wn and burst into loud sobs as the music brought home
to them with renewed force the affliction that had fallen
-upon them.
Clergymen from all over Greater New York and from
towns^and villages in New Jersey were present, going about
from house to house to conduct the services for the dead.
Services, as a rule, were most simple. Only a prayer,
the reading of the Scriptures and the benediction were used
in most cases, even where the minister faced three and even
four caskets containing members of one family. It was
the general wish that this should be so. The grief of the
German district dogs not find outlet in ceremonial of an
¦elaborate character.
Throughout the day streets in the vicinity of St. Mark's
Church were crowded. Many of the crowd were of the mor
bidly curious kind, but as many more were mourners ; weep
ing women and children, and silent, hea'vy-eyed men were
there to behold the last of life-long friends' and acquaint
ances. Evidences of mourning were everywhere. From al
most every house, not alone the crape on the door told of
grief, but black-draped American and German flags and
long streamers of black and purple and white swung from
windows. In the windows of shops were black-bordered
cards bearing in German and English the legend: "We
mourn the loss of our beloved," or "We mourn our loss."
KEEPING BACK THE CRO^WDS.
The police arrangements were perfect. Early in the day
Inspector Schmittberger, having under him twenty-three
sergeants, ten roundsmen and 400 policemen, divided his

184 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
force into squads of eleven — ^ten men and an officer — and
there was a squad for each funeral during the day to keep
back the crowds and to force passageways for thg proces
sions as they wound in and out of the streets.
But there was no hard work for them to do. The crowds
were most easily handled. It seemed as if all who came
within the borders of the territory were transformed into
solemn, awestruck men, women and children. Silently the
spectators lined curbs and sidewalks by the hour to see the
hearses pass and repass. Only occasionally would a police
man have anything to do, and that would be perhaps when
some man or woman would step out from the crowd, mut
tering incoherent words which told of overtaxed nerves.
Chief of the funerals perhaps was that of Mrs. Haas,
wife of the pastor of the little church which has suffered
so hiuch. The old-fashioned parsonage in Seventh street,
just back of the church, was crowded by friends and repre
sentatives among the clergy. The floral decorations were
profuse ; tokens from ministers of every denomination of
the city, as well as friends.
Mr. Haas, whose nervous condition has been such that
fears were entertained for his recovery, was led into the
parlor, and a moment later Miss Emma Haas, sister of the
minister, herself still suffering from the effects of her ex
perience, was carried downstairs on a stretcher and placed
beside the chair on which her brother sat.
SAD NEWS AT FUNERAL.
The Eev. Dr. Alexander Eichter, of St. Matthew'.=;
Church, Hoboken, was in charge of the services and
preached a sermon that dealt with resignation. The Eev.
Dr. Joseph Loch, of Brooklyn, read the Scriptures, and
the Eev. Dr. Herschman, president of the Ministerium,
and the Eev. Dr. Hugo Hoffman, offered prayers.

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 185
Only once were the services interrupted, and that was
when a messenger called one of the ministers present aside,
and after a whispered consultation it was announced to the
brother and sister already stricken, that but a moment be-
' fore a body at the Morgue had been identified as that of
Mrs. Tetamore, Mrs. Haas' sister. With the authorities
assisting in every way the body was at once brought to the
house, and an hour later, when the funeral procession
¦started there were two hearses, and the sisters were buried
together. Outside in the other streets, before the Haas funeral and
afterward, funeral services were being conducted on every
hand. At 85 East Third street, for instance, there was the
funeral of three children — Gertrude, Annie and Henrietta
Prawdsicki. Later in the day one hearse was used for as
many as three small caskets, but in the case of the Prawd
sicki children there were three hearses, preceded by an open
barouche filled with fiowers and followed by ten coaches,
with the grief-stricken father.
The body of the mother of the children had not yet been
found. At 171 Avenue A there were the funerals of the
three Michaels children. From 533 Fifth street came four
of the Weiss children. There had been sixteen members
of the family on the fateful excursion. Three members of
the Kopf family were taken from 377 East Ninth street.
From 506 Sixth street came a casket bearing the body of
an infant member of the Keisler family, and on the stairs
of the house was met another procession bearing the bodies'
of two members of the Eosenhardt family.
FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE.
Thus it was throughout the district, and if anything was
needed to show the intensity of feeling it was when five dead

186 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
were being taken at the same moment from 88 and 90 Ave
nue A and from across the street.
Not a half hour later came another shock to the crowds,
and this perhaps was the greatest of the day. Down Second
avenue, moving slowly, came a procession of fourteen
hearses, followed by one carriage containing two men. At
the head a black hearse bore a black casket of an adult and
at its side a tiny white one. At the Morgue the ticket had
read: "Unidentified woman found with child clasped in
her arms."
Behind this came several black hearses and then one of
white in which side by side were three white caskets. An
other interval of black and another white hearse bearing
two, a black hearse bearing two, another mother and child,
and so on through the fourteen.
IN AWE BEFORE PROCESSION.
Straight down the avenue from the Morgue the proces
sion had come slowly, and just as slowly it turned through
Sixth street. If the crowd had been silent before it vras;
now almost immovable. Only here and there as the proces
sion passed could be heard a half -stifled "Ah!" as some
woman or man sank on the pavement in prayer or in a
fit of weeping. Through Sixth street to First avenue went
the procession, down First avenue to Fifth street, and so
on east and south to Delancey street, where was the entrance
to the Williamsburg Bridge. It was almost the climax
of the day's strain, but the police anticipated even more
distressing scenes, for many more remained to be buried
throughout the district.
In one instance, that of the Eichter family, there were
six bodies awaiting the coming of the hearses. There were
three in some other families, four in one instance^

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 187'
The bodies were buried in the Lutheran Cemetery at Mid
dle Village, L. I., and the way for all of the processions
was across the Williamsburg Bridge. From nine o'clock to-
five the processions were almost continuous across the struc
ture, and the sight was witnessed by thousands of the East
Side who filled Delancey street and other thoroughfares. I
For the unidentified dead and the poorest, the cemetery
trustees had provided a plot 350 feet square, and in this.
the twenty-nine bodies were buried. The others were scat
tered all over the cemetery. There was a profusion of flow
ers everywhere, for societies, churches and individuals had
been most generous. The order at the cemetery was per
fect. 'There ¦was no confusion, There were no services
there.
I A T'RIFJjE FUNERAL FROM GRACE CHUECH, ON BROADWAT..
A black hearse, a white hearse and a black hearse trimmed.
with white, standing in front of Grace Church, on Broad
way, made the hurrying business man and the shopper-
pause and think again of the awful disaster. It was ai
triple funeral of Mrs. Minnie Stoss, her daughter Edna,
and her nephew, Teopil Kawezynski. The usual Episco
pal service for the dead was read by Dr. Huntington, a
vested choir sang the anthem, "Lord, Thou Hast Been Our
Eefuge" and "I Heard a Voice from Heaven," and the
benediction was followed by Stainer's Grand Amen. The
tops of the three caskets were completely hidden by flowers,
and another open carriage carried the floral offerings of
friends. Trebly aShcted in the loss of his mother and his only
child, and in the precarious condition of his ¦wife, Frederick
" Klenen, of 1391 Washington avenue. The Bronx, was the
principal mourner at funeral services for Mrs. Neta Klenen.

188 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
56 years old, and Ethel Klenen, 1 year, at the Merritt un
dertaking parlors. Nineteenth street and Eighth avenue,
Manhattan. Mrs. Frederick Klenen, who was saved from
the river, badly burned, is a patient at Lebanon Hospital,
her condition being so serious that she has not been in
formed of the death of her baby daughter and its grand
mother. The funeral was attended by a large number of
friends and relatives of the family, and among the mourners
were a number of survivors of the disaster. The Eev.
Eenry Stoup, pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, of
F]ast 119th street, Manhattan, conducted the simple serv
ices at the chapel, and the burial service at the Lutheran
Cemetery. There were many flowers, in clusters and in
set pieces. Four small boys acted as pall-bearers for the
cliild, and the bodies were borne away in a white and a
hlack hearse.
One of the largest funerals was that of John L. Brun-
ing and his wife, Anna B., from their late home at 316 East
Twelfth street, Manhattan. About the house there was
none of that maudlin curiosity which pervaded the streets
farther down town.' The services were conducted by the
Eev. Jacob Schlegel. SCENES AT THE CEMBTBEY.
A scene unrivaled in the history of the German Lutheran
burying ground at Little Village, L. I., or perhaps any
burial ground of the country, was witnessed by a concourse
-of fully 15,000 people, when 178 victims of the General
Slocum disaster were buried.
There were 138 bodies interred outside of the 39 un
claimed bodies, and 11 were placed in vaults, making a
total of 178 bodies that passed through the gates of the
cemxCtery from early morning until sunset.

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 189

PEAYEES BY A GEAVE DIGGEE.
At some of the graves there was no officiating clergyman,
. After the bodies were lowered an old grave digger picked
up a handful of dirt, tossed it upon the coffin-box, and re
peated a simple burial prayer. Outside of the Eev. Mr..
Haas, who came to the cemetery for the burial of his wife,
the Eev. Dr. E. W. Peterson was the only minister present.
Next day in the little chapel in the cemetery the Eev.
Dr. Peterson held a memorial service for all of the bodies-
buried the day before in the cemetery, and the cemetery was
overwhelmed with many thousands of relatives, friends and
sightseers. The first funeral to enter the gates of the cemetery was
that of George, Emily and Frederick Stahl, the three chil
dren of Andrew Stahl. Lillie was never found, and the
father gazed mournfully at the procession of unclaimed
dead that followed, wondering if the body of his little one
was among them. At the grave Mary, another child, feU
unconscious, and the mother and father were helped away
in a prostrated condition by friends. Tears came to the
eyes of those assembled about 'the grave as the mother
shrieked aloud in her grief.
HEAESES WEEB DELAYED.
In accordance with the German custom, many of the fun
eral parties adjourned to nearby hotels and partook of food
and refreshments. The throng inside the hotels, th^
hearses and carriages standing in rows and groups outside,,
the assemblages of sympathizing women about the child
mourners aU combined to make a scene not soon forgotten^
At nightfall many of the hearses and carriages had not re
turned to the city.

190 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
To meet the unexpected number of dead Superintendent
T)avid Avenus, of the Lutheran Burying Ground, was ob
liged to enlist stone cutters, fiorists, teamsters and men of
other occupations to fill the role of grave diggers. Fully
160 grave diggers worked from 8 o'clock in the morning
until 6 o'clock at night, when they were relieved.
Thomas Leitch, the clerk in charge of the burying-
¦ground during the past twenty-three years, has seen over
30,000 funerals pass the gates, but yesterday he was so
overcome by the General Slocum disaster that he would not
look out of the wdndow at the continuous procession of
white and black hearses and carriages.
Heartrending and pathetic in the extreme was the burial
of the unrecognized bodies — ^twenty-nine in aU. There
were nine babies, and all went in fourteen hearses. There
were not enough white hearses for the little white coffins
of the babies, so some of the white coffins had to go in the
hlack hearses.
There were no mourners to follow the fourteen hearses
with unrecognized bodies. The bodies of the babies came
io the cemetery without anyone following to mourn for
them. There was a single carriage following the last hearse
of this sad procession. In it were the officers of the
morgue. An old woman sat weeping at the curb near Second
avenue and Sixth street. "Perhaps my baby is in one of
them coffins !" she wailed. •
There were other sorrowing, mothers and fathers who
watched with weeping eyes the progress of the fourteen
hearses. The street on each side was lined with thousands
of persons, from the morgue down Second avenue to Sixth
street, and along First avenue to Eivington street and the
new bridge. At the cemetery the Eev. E. W. Peterson read
the burial service.

THB GENERAL SLOOUM DISASTER. 191
IN SILENT WOE THE PEOPLE OF ST. MAEK'S
MEET.

GRIEF BREAKS FORTH AT SIGHT OF MR. HAAS.

'Hand of Death on Homes of Pastor, Organist and Sing
ers — Congregation Gathers to Mourn Its Lost.
Infinitely sad and impressive were the memorial services
in St. Mark's Church on Sunday morning. Outside the
doors the funeral trains rumbled, and the curious crowds
passed and repassed with pitiful glances at the fiuttering
emblems of death.
Long before the church doors opened, squads of police
formed along the block to keep the crowds in check. But
their presence was unnecessary. The people were quiet and
orderly, as all sorrow-stricken throngs are.
Here and there among the crowds men passed bearing
fiowers for the dead. Beautiful wreaths, pillows of white
roses, open gates of fragrant Hlies, broken columns and
angels with outspread wings were everywhere. There was
a"t least a tender touch of comfort in this.
Two or three hearses stood in front of the old church,
and through the closed shutters above came the sound of
wailing voices and of prayers for the dead.
The old church itself was almost devoid of mourning em
blems within. The pews were gaunt and crypt-like in their
empty desolation, the walls were undraped and the altar,
behind which was uplifted the crucified Christ, was naked
and bare. On the lectern only were a few black bows.
It was fitting that it should be so, for the grief which has
faUen upon the church is too deep for ostentation. On
the stone steps of the narrow areaway outside, wretched

193 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
figures sat weeping, while about them stood crowds of won
dering children -with bands of black crepe around their arms.
Nowhere could be found the semblance or stiggestion of a
smile or a light heart.
C0NGEEG4.TI0N GATHEES SADLY.
With almost the quietness of death itself the crowd
drifted into the church. They came like ghosts, sad and
hollow-eyed with sorrow. It was an impressive thing to
watch this slow cumulation of a common grief.
One by one they would enter the darkened pews and at
once bend forward on the railings in deep and silent prayer.
Everywhere there was the reverent solemnity of a voiceless
grief. There came a German laboring man through the doors.
He was in his working clothes, soiled and shabby, ragged
and awrj' — just as he had probably worn them night and
day since the burning of the Slocum. But the dignity of a
great sorrow ennobled him. The well-dressed made way
for him, and he sank into a pew, and buried his face in an
old red handkerchief.
Seldom during the services did he open his eyes. Those
who were near-by would have thought him asleep had they
not noted the con^vulsive heaving of his breast and his
tensely clenched hands.
"He lost his entire family — ^his wife and four little chil
dren," said somebody who knew him.
A group of little girls dressed in white, ¦with bands of
mourning on their sleeves, entered a pew and knelt in sup
plication, which ended in an outburst of weeping. They
were survivors of the disaster. They choked and stammered
beneath their breath, and it was some time before they could
compose themselves.
The church filled slowly, as most of the regular mem-

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 193
lers were attending funerals. In fact, many of the pews
were empty and there were not half a dozen persons in the
gallery. Here were the bare branches of a church tree,
from which death had stripped away the leaves.
Suddenly from the far distance there came the sound of
church bells. Somebody in one of the shadowy pews sobbed.
At that moment it would have taken only the weight of a
few words to have sent the entire congregation — ^men,
women and children — into a ¦wild storm of grief.
PALL OF DEATH ON ALL.
T'or these things were in their thoughts :
Here there would be no sound of bells, for the sexton:
had perished.
Here there would be no sermon, for the pastor was
stricken. Here there would be no music, for the player was gone.
Here there would be no songs, for the singers were dead.
While the bells were pealing. Pastor Deering, of the
State Street Lutheran Church, entered. He paused
at the door, with streaming eyes, and it was many minutes
before he could master his emotion. He was supported by
one of the ushers as he walked down the aisle.
The services were conducted by Pastor Holstein, a former
Lutheran minister of Brooklyn. They were extremely sim
ple, consisting only of reading and prayer. There was no
effort to efface sorrow by oblivion, but to soothe it by hope. :
But it is hard to solace a grief which stares into an open
grave. When the minister entered through the little door near
the altar he faced a congregation as quiet as the tomb;
[For a few moments he looked fixedly at the mute crowd
before him, and in his gaze there was a tremendous strug
gle. He was facing men who had lost their wives, mothers ^

194: THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
who had lost their darlings, and children who had lost their
playmates. To him they were looking for comfort. Dr.
Holstein began by reading a poem entitled "Who Knows
How Near Is My End?"
j He had scarcely finished when the vestry door slowly
j opened and there appeared the figure of a man swathed
in bandages and walking with weak and uncertain steps.
PENT-UP GRIEF BREAKS FORTH. ,
It was the Eev. Dr. Haas, the pastor of the church. The
congregation slowly rose to a standing position as the pas
tor, supported by his brother and his son, made his way
to a front pew.
Then the long pent-up storm of emotion broke. From
all directions came the soimd of weeping, of sobs low and
heartbreaking, sobs chUdish and tearful, sobs dry and hard
and terrible.
It was an outburst of sympathy and sorrow sueh as is
seldom seen. The pastor'sat silent and motionless as one
in a dream while Dr. Holstein read the entire fourteenth ¦
chapter of St. John, the Thirty-ninth Psalm, the First
Epistle of Peter, chapter v, verses 6 to 11, and the llth
chapter of Eevelations from verse 19th to the end.
Then, with the congregation standing, prayers for the
afflicted were recited, after which Dr. Holstein solemnly
pronounced the benediction.
The congregation made no move for the doors until the
black-clad form of the minister had disappeared through
.the vestry door.
Then as the doors were opened and the people began to
file out they were again confronted by the rumbling funeral^
trains and the sound of the solemn chanting from the
houses where lay the dead.
The transition came upon them as a shock.

Diagram of the course taken hy Captain Van Schaick from the
moment he discovered the flre until he beached his boat
south of Rikers Island. The solid line shows the course
sailed. The dotted lines and stars show the spots where,
according to river men, the captain could have beached his
l)oat and saved muoh time.

195

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 197

CHAPTEE XII,
DAEING DEEDS OF HEEOBS.
The complete story of this great disaster would not be
told unless some of the daring deeds performed on that
day were recorded. The following are only a few instances
where great deeds of heroism were performed, and where
men and women have shown that they are willing to die
if need be in the effort to save life :
Of the few hundred who were saved most owe their pres
ervation to the courage of unselfish men and women. Boys
and girls scarcely more than children themselves bore their
parts nobly, as witness the youthful apprentice who saved
twenty-two lives and the nursegirl intrusted with two babes
who swam for the first time in her life and brought her
charges safely to the shore.
Hell Gate had a Jim Bludso of its own, who risked his
life and all that he had, a smoky little tug.
There were experienced pilots and captains who went
about the work of rescue like trained life-savers; firemen
leaped into the waters in their heavy clothing and police
men from stations far and near rowed in whatever boats
ihey could find to help in the work of rescue.
Heroes in every walk of life may be found on the roll,
and the record of the darkest day in the history of New
York Harbor is brightened by golden letters which tell of
high courage and supreme devotion. Those who may have
ihe task of finding those who are entitled to rewards from

198 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
a hero fund wiU have many candidates from whom to
choose.
EIGHTEEN-YEAE-OLD BOY SAVES THE LIVES OF TWENTY-
TWO PERSONS.
Twenty- two lives saved is written opposite the name of
Charles Schwartz, Jr., machinist's apprentice, eighteen
years old. His rescues were performed, too, with a break
ing heart, for he knew that while he was aiding others his
mother and grandmother were lying dead on the beach of
North Brother Island.
Schwartz is light of frame, yet his skill in swimming has
made him well known throughout the East Side.
"There was not much time to think," said he, "and as
soon as I saw what was up I did what I could. I was on
the hurricane deck of the General Slocum, and when I
knew that there was a fire the first thing I did was to put
a life preserver around my little brother Louis, who is ten
years old, and I got him to stand by me. Then I saw that
ihere was going to be a panic, and I thought that in the
water was the best chance for him, so I threw him over
board. Louis is all right.
"I made a trip down below to see if I could be of any
help, but I saw that the fire was beyond control, and that
nobody would work in any kind of system. I noticed that ,
two or three boats were coming, and I backed up against
the rail, calling out that there was a good chance, and
pleading with the passengers to keep cool and not shove.
The rail went, though, and I tumbled over backward inta
the water.
"The first person that I saw was Mrs. Addicks, who keeps
a candy store at No. 53 Avenue A, and she called me by
name, and I went over and helped her by keeping her chin '

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 199,
above water and towing her a little. She got to shore all
right and was not much hurt. She threw her arms around
my neck and kissed me. I got into the water again and
helped Miss Emma Haas, the sister of the pastor, until a
boat came to take her, and then I saw my mother and
grandmother. They were fioating face downward. I got
them both ashore and helped the doctors with them on the
lawn. 'It's no use,' said the doctors, 'we can't do any
thing for your people, my boy.'
"I felt as though my heart would break, and then I
looked out upon the water and saw that there were yet
men, women and children who might be saved. A man
came along in a little boat, and I swam out to him and
worked with him. I went overboard whenever I could and
swam up to people and helped them into the boat. Many
of them grabbed at me, but I was able to keep off enough
to prevent being dragged down. I felt hands way down in
the water holding at my feet. Hands caught me every
where, and above me was the fire raging and roaring. I
wish that I had been stronger and could have done more.
"The stranger in the boat and I brought four or five
ashore at a time and took them upon the beach. I had
my clothes off and was able to swim easily, for I kept as
cool as I could and saved my strength. I learned to swim
in the public baths, and if it had not been for the practice
that I got there I would not have been able to do anything.
"We brought ashore many bodies, too, and not until there
was no chance of saving anybody did I quit. Counting
those I either got into the boat or swam out for I saved
twenty-two. If I had been a stronger fellow I might have
done a great deal more, but I'm light. I weigh only 133
stripped. Eather too light, don't you think?
"Hero ? Oh, I'm nothing like that. I happened to have
the knack of swimming a little better than some other per-

300 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
sons, and so I thought it was my duty to do the best X
could. Besides, I'm not thinking much of that kind of
thing with my mother and grandmother lying there in the
room. I did aU I could for them, but the smoke must have
suffocated them before they were in the water."
FIREMEN ON THE ZOPHAR MILLS RISKED LIEVES TO SA^VB
:, OTHERS.
Another medal which will serve as a companion piece to
the one received last year will perhaps be awarded to Fire
man Joseph J. Mooney, who nearly lost his life in saving a
woman. Mooney attracted the attention of the public on June 6,
1903, when he received the William L. Strong gold medal
for saving the life of a little girl, Gertrude Schwenneger,
at a fire at Madison avenue and Sixtieth street. Mayor
Low presented the medal while the child stood by the side
of the gallant fireman.
Only recently Mooney was transferred to the fireboat
Zophar Mills, and when, on the day of the disaster, she
steamed up into the East Eiver, dotted with the dro^wning,
Mooney could not devote his energy to using lines and boat-
hooks. He went into the water and brought two women
to the side of the Zophar Mills.
In effecting the rescue of the third woman, who weighed
two hundred pounds, and was all the more unmanageable
on account of her heavy, water-soaked clothing, Mooney
made a valiant effort to reach the side of the fireboat. His
plight was noticed by the other firemen, who threw a rope
to him. Mooney had strength enough to hold it and was
drawn over the side of the vessel.
Eestoratives were administered both to the woman and '
her rescuer. Mooney was able, in the course of a few mia*

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 301
lites, to resume his duties, but he did not again venture into
the water.
George Lawlor, another fireman, saved a woman by
swimming after her. Only four living persons were taken
on board the Zophar Mills. There were seventeen dead
bodies on her deck.
Firemen attached to Bronx fire companies took an active
part in saving the dro^wning, and many cases are reported
of their leaping into the water without removing any cloth
ing, so eager were they to be of assistance.
Policemen from all stations aided in the rescue when the
opportunity offered, and many of them rowed out to the
vessel in whatever boats they could obtain.
PLAYED HOSE ON HIM WHILE HE SALVED DROWNING.
Efficient service was rendered by the Charities boat, the
Massasoit, of which Captain Frederick W. Parkinson is
the commander. The captain was trained under his uncle.
Captain Henry Eick, a veteran Hell Gate pilot. . Not only
did he direct the work of rescue from his post, where it was
so hot from the fiames of the burning wreck that it was al
most impossible to remain there, but he helped bring the
helpless aboard when opportunity offered. Whenever he
could leave the wheel he sat in the loop of rope swung over
ihe side of the Massasoit, aiding in drawing up those who
were struggling in the water.
The captain speaks in terms of highest praise of the con
duct of his crew, mentioning especially his mate, James J.
Duane, and Albert Eappaport. Duane went out in the
lifeboat to within a few feet of the burning Slocum and
was able to work because the captain ordered hose to be
constantly played on him. He brought in ten persons in
all. He was in constant danger, owing to the possibUity of
portions of the burning superstructure falling upon him. -

¦g02 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Eappaport went over the side of the Massasoit, and at
great personal risk saved seven persons. He brought them
to the side of the steamboat, and they were Ufted aboard by
the engineer and deck hands.
"The first one I got," said Eappaport, "was a boy who
Iclung to me after I got back on board, begging that I would
not leave him. He said he did not know where to go, as his
mother was drowned.
"I was clad only in underclothes, and in a struggle to
save another boy about thirteen years of age my clothing
fell about my feet, and it was with great difficulty that I
was able to get within reach of a heaving line."
Everywhere on the Massasoit are the evidences of her
fight with fire. The paint on the upper works of thevessel
is badly blistered, and the windows of the pilot-house are
cracked. The Massasoit saved in all forty persons.
Those who are mentioned in his report for efficient work
are William M. Hatch, the chief engineer; Nicholas Eyan,
assistant; James Farrelly, James Caffrey and John Coch
rane, firemen, and John Lynch and John Cunningham,
deck hands. .^
MODEST CAPTAIN RICK SAVED MANY FROM DROWNING.
No account of the work of rescue can be complete with
out the story of the deeds done by the modest captain of
the Franklin Edson. Not content with directing the ef
forts of his crew while he stood in a scorching pilot-house,
he went overboard after a woman and nearly lost his. life ia
doing so. Henry Eick is his name, and for thirty years
he has held a pilot's license. All of that time has been'
spent in the service of the city, either in the Health Depart
ment or the Department of Charities. The captain is now
58 years old, but he looks like a man of forty-five.

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 303
"It is difficult to tell what to do in such an emergency
.as that which confronted us in the Slocum disaster," said
he. "I had just left the Edson, which had come in at the
Board of Health pier, at 133d street, when I heard five
whistles from my boat. I was down there in a moment, and
as I was going across to the Slocum the engineer yelled up
ihe tube that he had water in three lines of hose. We soon
saw that water wasn't needed, but quick work to save lives.
.Everything in the way of life preservers we had went over
board, and then the heaving lines.
"Fifty feet was as near as I thought it safe to go, for
although the windows of the pilot-house were down in their
frames I could hear them crackUng, and the paint was blis
tering on the woodwork. Samuel K. Mills, the engineer,
and William Baimer, fireman, did fine work.
"It was hard work in many cases, for there were several
large and heavy women, whose weight was increased by their
water-soaked garments. We got all those who came our
way. Some may think that we ought to have taken the
rescued ashore right away for medical attention, but I con
sidered it best to save as many as we could. I think that
we got about twenty-five in aU. As to how many lived I
don't know yet; ten, I am certain of, anyway. Six died
after we got them aboard, although we did what we could
to revive them. My crew did a splendid work. Don't for
get to mention Andrew Andrews and Frank Lagarda, deck
hands. They are good boys."
"How about the woman for whom you went overboard ?"
"She was dead when I got her aboard, as near as I can
make out. Too bad ! I was rather tired out by the time
she was landed, but I think that she had been suffocated
before she got into the water. What I was able to do was
no more than any city employee should gladly do. I don't
want any rewards or any medals. I am too old for that

804 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
kind of thing. Once, when I was young, maybe, I thought
of fame, but with the city's boats the picking up of persons
in distress is part of the business."
TOOK CHILDREN AND MAN FROM PADDLE-WHEEL. I
Many were the expedients which quick-witted rescuers
had to bring into play in order to save the panic-stricken
passengers on the Slocum. Policeman Hubert C. FarreU,
who saved eight persons, is the subject of a report to Police
Headquarters. He is attached to the Alexander Avenue
Station. FarreU and James Collins, a special policeman, obtained
the yawl of the schooner Bayliss, which was at the foot of
East 137th street. Olaf Jansen and Samuel Patchen, the
negro steward, went in the boat with them to the burning
wreck. They found several persons hanging to the paddle-
wheel. "I will never forget that sight," said FarreU, "for above
us was a furnace of flame. There were passengers who had
been leaning against the paddle-box on the upper port who
began to fall off as the fire ate through at their backs.
Above us was the fire, and the heat was so intense that we
could scarcely remain there.
"Clinging to one of the paddles I saw an old man whose
head was just above water. I could see that his life was al- ;
most gone. On either shoulder was a little child. They
were clinging to his neck. I got out into the paddle-wheel,
finding a footing in the paddles, and standing in that way
up to my waist in water I leaned forward and first took
one child and then the other into the boat. The old man
could not be drawn up as I had done with the children. I
braced myself with my feet and grabbed him by the collar.
Then with a quick movement I dislodged his hands. He

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 205
fought and struggled with all his feeble strength. I be
lieve that he thought I was trying to drown him. Down
he went under the water. Then I got him up through the
wheel, and he was placed in the boat.
"It was hotter about that wreck than I ever believed it
possible to be."
ISLAND WOMEN SWAM AGAIN AND AGAIN TO SHIP.
Women on North Brother Island, matron, nurses, a tele
phone operator, patients, helpers, performed many acts of
heroism and daring. The sight of helpless babies in the
stream nerved them with almost superhuman strength.
Several who could not s-wim at all learned how that day
for the first time, so intent were they on errands of
mercy. None took a more active part in the work of rescue than
did Pauline Pelz, who is in the employ of Dr. Watson, one
of the physicians on the island. She divested herself of
her outer skirt and shoes and swam out to the vessel. It
seemed as if she had the strength of ten. She made five
trips into the water, returning each time with a woman or
a child. She started to go a sixth time, but was so weak
from her exertions that she found it impossible to leave the
beach. Miss Lulu McGibbon, a telephone operator, after she had
' been relieved from her duties in the administration build
ing on the island, hurried down to the beach. She swam
out twice to the vessel and brought back on each trip a
child. One of the babies was about a year and a half old,
and the other about three years of age.
"I often go bathing in the summer time off the island,"
said she, "and the nurses are also accustomed to swimming.
That gave us some practice for such an emergency as that
¦of Wednesday."

206 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
Several of the nurses, clad in their white uniforms, waded
out into the water or assisted in placing ladders and poles-
within reach of the passengers of the Slocum.
One of the most remarkable instances of the power of
devotion to duty over bodily fear is the act of Louise Gal- \
ling, a nurse girl from Nutley, N. J., who was on the ex
cursion with two babies, one two years old, and the other
three, the daughters of Mrs. Erkling, of Hoboken.
"I had no thought," said she, "of what might happen to
me. I had never swum a stroke in my life, and I didn'ir
know the slightest thing about how I should begin. I only
knew one thing, and that was that I must save the babies.-
So I took one in each arm and jumped overboard and.
kicked out with my feet and held them up as best I could.
I did not care whether I could swim or not. I only knew
that if I didn't I would not save the children. I struggled
oh through the water and got to the shore. I didn't know-
how, and I guess I never wiU, but I saved the babies."
MANY DEEDS OF HEEOISM PERFORMED BY MEN AND WOMEN
UNKNOWN.
No story of the Slocum disaster is complete without that:
of the Unknown Hero who was everywhere. The roll of
those who did the best they could under circumstances
which made it impossible to do what they would, is a long
one. Tugboat men speak of a man who was seen struggUng
near the shore of North Brother Island, with three women
cUnging to him. He had a life preserver, and he was
doing all that he could to keep those who clung to him
afloat. As he was nearing the shore a fourth woman
grabbed him, and he slowly began to sink with his three.'
charges.

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 307
"Don't!" he cried. "Don't. There isn't a chance for
us if you do that. I can't swim."
The woman increased her hold.
"All right," he replied, "we'll do the best we can. We
will all die together." They were picked up and brought
to the shore.
His act was on a par with the deeds of scores of others
performed about the shores of North Brother Island on that
day. There were men who released their hold on floating
¦wreckage to give women a chance, and young girls who
calmed themselves in the frenzy of fright to tear life pre
servers from their own bodies to bind them about babies
whose cries touched their hearts in that awful hour. Many
a wharf rat, whose name will never be known, did heroic
work, and fishermen who came and went in light skiffs,
leaving no records of valorous deeds, will not figure in the
books of those who reward heroism with medals and with
praise. "what's a tug to a human life?" said the owner of
THE WADE.
"He weren't no saint — them engineers
Is all pretty much alike."
Sanctity is not the strong card of James L. Wade, owner
and engineer of the Wade, the blackest and dirtiest little
tug in all the river, yet nearly a hundred persons, and more,
would hail this man of grime, in overalls once blue, as an
angel of light.
He ran the savings of ten years, represented in his tug,
ashore and used her as a bridge for the Slocum's passen
gers. "Damn the tug I" said he. "Let her burn !" For, like

308 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
Jim Bludso, Wade does not stop to pick his language. "Let
her stay where she is. What's a tugboat to a human
Ufe?" Wade goes up and down the East Eiver something after
the manner of a cruising cabman on land, doing odd mari
time jobs here and there. He was at North Brother Island
when he saw the General Slocum draw into view with a
mass of fire shooting from her forward deck.
He dived into the engine-room and told the pilot of
the little tug. Captain Fitzgerald, to make for the burning
steamboat. On deck were Edward Carroll, better known as "Eeddy,"
and Antonio Marcetti, otherwise "Tony." The Wade went
to the starboard side of the Slocum, getting in between the
shore and the steamer. Her propeller was fouled by a
rope, and maneuvering was out of the question. Wade
ordered that she be run aground, and over this bridge sev
enty-eight persons found their way to safety. The heat
blistered the sides of the deckhouse of the tug and only by
throv/ing water over the woodwork occasionally with buck
ets was the pilot-house saved from burning.
Carroll and Marcetti spent little time aboard, for they
were in the water most of the time. Carroll saved three
old women and Marcetti a girl. The Irishman was almost
exhausted in bringing the third woman to the side of the
tug, but he was finally pulled on board by the captain and
the engineer.
Not being able to use his lifeboat Wade presented it to the
first volunteer life-saver he saw, and he has not seen any
thing of the craft since.
Many people declare that the owner remained at his post
until the tug was nearly on fire and that his o'wn arms were
severely scorched.
Captain Fitzgerald, who was in the pilot-house of the

W ^¦**"*^'^-%-^

.' .^^^.

6"

CAPTAIN VAN SCHAICK OF THE GENEEAL SLOOUMJ

209

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 311
Wade, also did effective work at the Hoboken fire. The
Wade was pulled off by the tug Golden Eod while the
streams of water played by the fireboat Zophar MiUs kept
her from being destroyed.
SCHEUNING FACED DEATH TO RESCUE FIVE.
Brief is the official record of John A. Scheuning, a police
man attached to the Alexander Avenue Station, who saved
the lives of five.
There is time, though, to go beyond the plain tale of the
blotter, and to relate how he risked his life and courted
death under the lee of the buming Slocum.
Scheuning saw the burning steamboat while on duty near
the water front at 138th street. He commandeered a soda-
water wagon, in which he was driven to the foot of East
. 141st street, where he cut out a boat and pushed into the
stream. The Slocum was swinging off North Brother Isl
and, a fioating Tophet, and fanned by the off-shore wind
the fiames swept far out from the port side.
Scheuning rowed direct to the side of the steamer,
although the tugboatmen called to him that he was going
to his death. The heat was so intense when he came within
a hundred feet of the vessel that he felt the skin blister on
his face and hands. Burning brands fell about him, and
dead ahead towered the paddle-box, from which the fiames
were bursting as out of the top of a blast-furnace.
Scheuning stopped for a moment, and removing his
blouse soaked it in the water. He threw the garment about
his neck and shoulders, thus gaining protection from the
heat. At the same time Scheuning kept his arms closely to
his side as he rowed, so as to protect his body as much as
possible from the glow of the fire. Above him the fiames
were swept out in a sheet which at any time might have

212 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
been turned downward by a change of the wind, while tne
falling of blazing timbers were reminders that at any mo
ment the structure above might crash down upon him.
"There were five faces under that paddle-box," says
j Scheuning in telling his story, "that told me that it was
¦ my duty to go in there. I heard voices calling out, 'Mr.
Policeman, save Us !' and I rowed right up to it, although
I felt my back blistering and had to stop to throw water
¦over myself to keep from scorching. Once I got right up
there, though, the heat wasn't so bad, although the way
things were falling showed there was no time to be lost."
Scheuning ran the small boat alongside the paddle-box
which was well out of the water, and he was able by placing
one foot in the boat and the other on a paddle to lift into
the skiff five persons. They grasped the sides of the small
boat at first and nearly swamped it, but Scheuning, by
skillful balancing, was able to save three women and two
men, whom he rowed in safety to a barge.
Those whom he took from the paddle-box were Barbara
Uarhoffer, of 121 Avenue A; Barbara Becker, of 1157
Third avenue; Annie Kipp, of 1894 Lexington avenue; An
drew Zimmer, of 17 East Third street, and an unknown
man. Scheuning, "in the line of police duty," then brought
ashore thirteen bodies and devoted the rest of the day to
assisting the Coroner in tagging 171 of the dead. His
exploit of going so close to the Slocum was the cause of
others venturing to the aid of the distressed, despite the
intense heat.
DECKHAND SAVED OTHERS UNTIL HE FELL FEOM EXHAUS
TION.
Those who have seen many brave deeds performed in the
waters of New York Harbor say that the courage and de-

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 213
votion of at least one member of the crew of the General
Slocum exceeded anything which they ever beheld. Wil
liam E. Trembly was his name, and for a few w^eeks he
had been a deckhand on the vessel. He was not accustomed
to the water and he had back of him no experience in the
harbor, such as had the veterans of the Hell Gate fleet, wha
did such efficient service. "I've seen many courageous and
devoted acts done in my time," said Captain Parkinson,
of the Massasoit, in speaking of the conduct of the deck
hand of the Slocum, "but the way that man acted should
entitle him to all the medals which may be coming his way.
The flrst thing that I saw was his leap from the side of
the Slocum right out of a nest of flames. He swam ashore
again and again with women, and the way he saved his
strength and the cool manner in which he acted were such
as to win the admiration of every man who saw him.
"There wasn't much time, either, to watch others on a
day like last Wednesday. His last exploit was to bring in
three children at a time. How he did it I'm sure.I don't
know. He had two in his arms and a woman lowered a
third to him.
"He swam with one child in his teeth, steadying himself
and going slowly to save his strength. I could see that he
was pretty nearly gone, and when I got another glimpse of
him he was coming in to the shore.
"A woman clutched at him as he went past and he
seemed to be saying something to her. He got the three
children to safety and then I saw him staggering on the
shore. The woman was still pleading. He was unsteady on
his pins by that time and he barely had the strength to-
stand ; but he was still game. He started toward her ; then
his hands went up and he fell over backward on the beach
like a dead man. He had worked to the very limit. I
saw him afterward stretched out on the, lawn on NortK,

214 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Brother Island, and he was about as near a Corpse as a
man can well be and be alive."
Trembly was taken later to the Alexander Avenue Police
Station, where he told his story and then went to sleep on
the station house floor.
He said that he heard the first outcry of fire and did all
ihat he could to allay the panic. Finally, seeing that noth
ing more could be done, he placed life preservers about two
children and started with them to ihe shore. A woman
on the upper deck tore her skirt into strips and with the
rope which she hastily improvised lowered her' child to him,
begging that he take it ashore.
¦THEEE CHILDEEN, SEPAEATBD FEOM THEIR ELDERS, SAVED
MANY LIVES.
Children unable io reach life preservers above their
lieads and in many cases left without any older person near
them were active in helping not only those younger than
ihemselves but even went to the aid of their elders.
There was, for instance, Peter Wingerter, a boy of 13,
who lives at 516 Fifth street. He found on the upper
¦deck four babies which had been deserted by their par
ents. He remained on board the boat, although scores were
dropping into the water all about him, and with his o'wn
lands passed the two babies to the deck of a tugboat.
Then, with two infants under' his left arm, the boy slid
do'wn a stanchion to the main deck, where he passed his
charges to men in a rowboat. A woman threw her baby
into the stream and the boy dived overboard after it. As he
was going under the water a man who supposed that the
hoy was drowning pulled him out. Wingerter fought ¦with
his rescuer, who restrained him from again risking his
life.

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 215
Then there was William McCaffrey, 14 years old, who
tossed a dazed girl aboard a tug and swam to the shore
himself. On reaching North Brother Island he went out
again into the water and rescued three exhausted men who
were about to dro^wn, in the shallows.
Among children who are mentioned on the roll of honor
which illumines a dark day of tragedy is Arthur Link, of 71
Avenue A. On the upper deck a frightened woman was
about to leap into the water with her baby.
"If you can't swim," said he, "give me that baby." She
passed the child over to him and jumped.
The boy placed the child on a camp-chair, which he
braced against a stanchion to keep the infant from being
crushed. When he felt that the deck beneath his feet was
giving way he tucked the baby under his arm and struck
out for the shore, keeping himself afloat with one hand.
His burden was too much for his strength and he was
about to go under when a man in a skiff relieved him of
ihe child.
"Don't mind me," called the boy. "I can keep up all
right. Take care of the baby."

VALOROUS DEEDS DONE BY HARBOR POLICEMEN KELK AND
VAN TASSELL.
Two poUcemen of the Harbor Squad, Van Tassell and
Kelk, who were trained under Elbert 0. Smith, the present
inspector, who was formerly in command of the marine
department of the police force, did valorous work on the
day of the Slocum disaster. They had been detailed to
look after the safety of passengers, and although the con
ditions were beyond all control, they acted as though they
were in command.

316 THE GENEEAL SLOCJJM DISASTER.
Van Tassell was disabled and Kelk was among the last
to leave the doomed vessel. The two men stood on the
second deck. They are strong, and their muscles are weU
trained by rowing in the harbor. From their position they
threw women and children into the tugs which braved the
danger and the blistering heat. Van Tassell was knocked *
unconscious when the hurricane deck fell, for the body of
a woman struck him on the head.
He was picked up unconscious from the stream by a
mason employed on North Brother Island. As soon as he
had recovered the use of his senses Van Tassell, who was
in great pain owing to the bruising of the muscles of his
neck and head, returned to the ¦n^ork of rescue and later
helped in bringing in the dead. Kelk remained on board
the Slocum, although his hair was singed and his mustache
was nearly burned from his lip.
He lost no opportunity to give aid. He placed life pre
servers upon children and threw them into the flood; he
directed the work of tugboatmen who approached the ves
sel and kept back the panic-stricken who tried to jump
into the water when boats which were approaching to their
aid were only a few feet away. Though the flames burned
his clothing and blistered his skin Kelk was as calm as
though he were on parade.
"As I was standing there," said Kelk, in speaking of
the experience of the day, "a woman came rushing toward
me with her skirts in a blaze. There was a baby carriage I
standing near, in which there was a hea^vy blanket. I seized
the blanket, threw it around the woman and rolled her
on the deck until the flames were extinguished. She
jumped overboard then, and whether she was saved or not,,
I do not know."
That was only one incident which shows how quickly
things were done on that day.

THB GENERAL -SLOCUM DISASTER. 217
HOSE THAT FAILED.

DIVERS BRING UP CANVAS TUBE FEOM SLOCUM WEECK.
Much evidence touching the origin of the fire on the
General Slocum and the conditions which prevailed on
hoard her has been collected. Part of this was secured by
the wreckers working about the hulk ; part was in the form
of statements made by men who were on board. These tend
to show that the vessel was on fire much earlier than had
previously been supposed, and that the officers and crew
were acquainted with the fact.
Five feet of the fire hose of the General Slocum was re
covered from the wrreck by Diver TuUoch, and turned over
to Coroner O'Gorman to serve as evidence at the inquest.
The hose was burned at both ends and on a fold in the
middle, as though it had never been unreeled. The hose
is a two and a half inch canvas tube without any rubber
lining whatever.
Former Fire Marshal Freel, who examined the section
of hose, said that while it might serve its purpose if an
attempt had been made to use it in the case of the Slocum,
it would be seriously defective if the hose had to be used
at any considerable range. He said:
"The rough weave of the canvas on the inside causes a
considerable loss of force at the nozzle on account of the
friction with the water. Eoughly, in such hose as that the
loss due to friction would be about forty pounds to a hun
dred feet of hose. The hose is porous also, and leaks some
what. That is, it 'sweats,' causing a further loss of power,
luntU the fiber of the hose sweUs and makes the coating
.thoroughly impervious to water. That would take about
ten minutes."

318 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

STEEL WIRES ON THE BOATS.
Prom the sunken vessel one of the starboard steel life-
hoats was also brought up. The boat was stUl attached to
ihe davits, to which it was lashed by steel wires instead of
ropes. The boat was crumpled up in the middle, as if it
had been paper, and great gaps had been sprung in its bow,.
but boatmen say it would have been serviceable if it had
ever been got into the water.

NEW STORY OF FIEE S STAET.
Charles H. Lang, of 1843 First avenue, who used to be
a lifeguard at Coney Island, says the General Slocum was
on fire between Fiftieth and Fifty-fifth streets. As a re
sult of his statement, made to the police at the Information
Bureau, he was summoned to appear before the coroner.
Lang says he was on the upper deck with his wife, his
brother-in-law and sister-in-law and his 5-year-old son,
when two of the crew came on that deck and told another
deckhand, in his hearing, that there was a fire on board.
Lang says he looked at the Manhattan shore and knew the
boat was hetween Fiftieth and Fifty-fifth streets by a
brewery he recognized.
He got his family together, he says, told them something
was wrong, and got them to a place on the boat where the
crowd was small.
Just above Eighty-eighth street, he says, he saw an officer
of the boat, who, he is positive, was the captain, come on
deck and tell two deckhands there wa-s a fire on board.
Lang and his family knew how to swim and all escaped,,
save his cousin,' Amelia, whom he is trying to find.

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 319-
JOHN ENGELMAN'S STOEY.
John Engelman, of 435 East Twelfth street, stated that
he jumped from the Slocum at Ninety-second street, and
that the boat was buming briskly at that time. His story
was at first received doubtfully, but later was believed.
He says he worked for a number of years on a New York,
New Haven and Hartford Eailroad tug, and knows the
shore thoroughly. He said:
"I saw smoke coming up out of the hold when we were
at Ninety-second street. We were right in the opening of
Hell Gate and even at that time my knowledge of boat fires.
taught me the Slocum was no place to stay. The fire must;
have been going some time then. The smoke was dense. I
took hold of my wife and six-year old son and we jumped.
I managed to swim, with my wife resting on my shoulders,
to the Long Island shore, but I have not seen my son since
and I am looking for him."
Engelman lost two sisters also in the disaster.
TO EBASSUEE THE PUBLIC.
It is possible that every steamboat carrying passengers in
New York Harbor and neighboring waters may come in for
a rigid reinspection by the Federal officials, in spite of the
opposition of Eobert S. Eodie, super^vising inspector of this
district. Mr. Eodie's devotion to the rules and regula
tions of the department has not been weakened apparently '
by the disclosures concerning rotten life preservers and in
adequate fire-fighting facilities since the Slocum disaster
happened. He has declared repeatedly that he saw no
necessity for another inspection of the excursion vessels and
that none woidd be made unless upon the ¦written applica
tion of the o^wners or masters of the boats.
His attitude has aroused the city officials, who feel thai^

'S30 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
ihe people will never be satisfied until assured in the most
positive maimer that every excursion steamer, barge and
ferryboat plying in these waters is properly equipped for the
-protection of life in case of an accident.
; The following letter was sent to Secretary Cortelyou
[ by Mayor McCIellan :
"The awful calamity which has befallen the city in the
loss of the lives of so many hundreds of its inhabitants
while on board the steamer General Slocum in the Sound
on the 15th instant, impels me to invite j'our attention to
the propriety of an immediate inspection hj the United
States -Government of all passenger-carrying boats in the
¦waters adjacent to New York City.
I "The lack of jurisdiction in the city authorities makes
lit impossible for us to protect our citizens from such dan-
¦gers.i "I would, therefore, urge that when making your inves-
' tigation into the causes which operated to produce this re
cent calamity, you extend its scope as I have suggested.
"The season for this kind of traffic is now opening, and
ihe tranquillity of the public mind, the security of life and
even the interests of the traffic itself, call for immediate
action. "Anticipating your compliance with this suggestion, if a
modification of existing regulations should be undertaken
the experts of the Fire, Health and Building Departments
of the city will, if desired, be placed at your service to facili
tate and expedite the work."
EXCURSION BUSINESS HARD HIT.
The steamboat owners themselves, it is saidy will be
driven to ask for another inspection of their vessels if Sec-

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 321
retary Cortelyou does not act upon the Mayor's request.
The Slocum accident has had a disastrous effect upon their
business, many excursions having been declared off and
thousands of people refusing to patronize the boats until
assured that they are properly equipped. Nothing will re
store the confidence of the pubUc except thorough tests of
aU apparatus.
Many Brooklyn church excursions which were to be held
were abandoned, while those which took place were very
slimly attended. The Good Shepherd, Nativity and St.
Mark's Episcopal churches had a joint excursion on the
Eichmond of the Starin Line, but there were only 350 pas
sengers, not a third of the usual number.
Less than 300 attended the excursion of the New York
Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church on the steamer Cyg
nus. The Grand Eepublic carried only 364 members of the
Union League, successor to the Brooklyn Chautauqua, on
the annual excursion up the Hudson, although in the past
the attendance has generally reached 1,000.
St. Peter's Sunday School excursion has been abandoned.
ALL THE INQUIRIES.
It was said officially that the Federal investigation into
the Slocum disaster would begin in the quarters of the
Steamboat Inspection Department, on the seventeenth floor
of the Whitehall Building, in Battery place. Secretary Cor
telyou did not return to the city. When he was here he
said he would take personal charge of the investigation.
Dispatches from Washington afterward said that General
James A. Dumont, chief inspector of the New York of
fice, would conduct the proceedings. General Dumont is a
pretty old man. He has been head of the bureau here for
twenty-seven years. He refused to say whether he would
have charge of the investigation.

333 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
By request of District Attorney Garvan the Fire Mar
shal's investigation was postponed to give the coroner's in
quest the right of way. After the adjournment Chief En
gineer Conklin, who had with him as counsel Theodore B.
'[ Chancellor, went to police headquarters to have a talk with
I -Commissioner McAdoo.
Frank A. Barnaby, president of the Knickerbocker
Steamboat Company, and ex-Judge Dittenhoefer, called
¦on Assistant District Attorney Garvan and talked for an
iour. When the conference was over Judge Dittenhoefer
said that he represented Mr. Barnaby personally, and that
ex-Judge Olcott would represent the company.
Judge Dittenhoefer said that Mr. Garvan asked Mr. Bar
naby if the steamboat company would consent to the city
blowing up the wreck. Judge Dittenhoefer replied that the
company had nothing to do with the wreck. It was in the
possession of the insurance companies, and if the steamboat
company gave any directions as to its disposal, they might
release the right to the insurance. This might indirectly
hurt the sufferers in the disaster. Judge Dittenhoefer said,
as the insurance money might be used as a fund for them.
Judge Dittenhoefer said that Mr. Barnaby promised to
give Mr. Garvan the name of the builder of the General
Slocum, the architect, the parties from whom everything
on the boat was bought, and the brokers who arranged for
ihe insurance. NEW ¦VBESION OF CAPTAIN'S STOET.
Captain Van Schaick, of the General Slocum, who is a
prisoner in Lebanon Hospital, talked to a friend of the
burning of his ship.
The captain's story is radically different from the tale
ie told in the Alexander Avenue Police Station immedi
ately after the disaster. Here is the statement:

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 223
"I was in the pilot-house opposite Sixty-fourth street
and saluted the Grand Eepublic, which passed me at that
point. I then walked aft to my cabin and stood at the
door for a few moments, then went in and sat down. While
I was sitting do^wn the mate sent up an alarm of fire.
"We were then midway between the Sunken Meadows
and North Brother Island.
"I gave orders to go ahead, and in three minutes the boat
was beached on the shore of North Brother Island. If I
had turned back to the Sunken Meadows the time I would
have lost would have cost the lives of all on board.
"If I had turned and run to the Bronx shore or any other
shore the boat would have struck head on and would have
humped off again into deep water."
He said he judged the fire had been burning two min-
-utes before he heard of it.

234 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.

CHAPTEE XIII.

COMMENTS OF THE PEESS ON THE DISASTEE.
THE BUENING OF THE SLOCUM.
The worst marine disaster of its kind which has ever
occurred in the vicinity of the metropolis was recorded
yesterday. The steamer General Slocum, carrying at least
a thousand Sunday School excursionists, was burned soon
after passing through Hell Gate for a resort on the Sound.
Scarcely more than an hour had elapsed since the pleasure-
seekers embarked, and probably less than ten minutes in
tervened between the first alarm and the full consummation
of ihe horror. It is not unlikely that the number of women
and children who were drowned, in consequence of jump
ing or falling overboard, will reach or exceed 400. How
many others were entrapped in ihe hull by the collapse of
the hurricane deck and were burned to death can at present
be only conjectured. The exact truth may never be
known, but these victims may swell the total loss to fully
six or seven hundred.
The greatest mortality from a similar cause in local'
waters was that which resulted from the explosion of a
boiler on the Staten Island ferryboat Westfield in 1871.
Fully 100 persons were killed at that time, and 300 more
were injured. Between 100 and 300 deaths have resulted

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 325
from the burning of steamers on the Mississippi Eiver and
Long Island Soimd, and even worse records have been made
on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, though not re
cently. The loss of life from a fire on the Montreal in
1857 was about 250, and that from one in 1850 on the
Griffith, running between Brie and Cleveland, was esti
mated at nearly 300. It is with these last two disasters that
comparison will now naturally be made. Obviously, an en
tirely new precedent has been established. Perhaps even
the effects of the destruction of the Iroquois Theatre in Chi
cago last December have been surpassed.
Widespread as will be the sorrow created by yesterday's
tragic event, and universal as ¦will be the sympathy excited,
it is now too soon to censure anybody. The boat had been
inspected by Federal officials within a few weeks and pro
nounced to be in first-class condition. On this occasion
she carried a much smaller number of passengers than her
permit specifies. The captain, the two pilots and the en
gineer showed the utmost heroism, the last-mentioned offi
cer dying at his post. Moreover, Captain Van Schaick's
discretion seems to have equaled his courage. Some of the
excursionists believe that he should have beached the
steamer sooner. It is safe to say, however, that he under
stood his business better than any of his critics. No one
else on board could have been so well acquainted with the
difficulties and dangers of pursuing any other policy than
the one which he chose.
A number of lessons will be found by ¦wide-awake steam-
boatmen in this disaster when the facts are better known
^han they are to-day. The chief one will relate to the pre
vention of any such outbreak of fire as that which occurred
on the General Slocum. Another will deal with improve
ments in construction. In the meantime the public will
do well to recognize the probability that travel on excur-

236 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
sion boats during the remainder of the season will be safer
than it was before. If no new precautions are adopted, at
least a greater vigilance will be exercised. Again, the
majority of the patrons of these boats also have something
to learn about the safeguards provided for them by law.
One person in ten, perhaps, can swim, but it is doubtful
if one in a hundred can put on a life preserver. To make
nse of the latter in a crowd, and when a panic develops, may
not be possible, but these hindrances do not always exist
when the need arises. Many lives might have been saved
yesterday if, before going on board the General Slocum, all
of her passengers had familiarized themselves ¦with the
arrangement of a life preserver and the art of donning one
in the right manner. — Tribune.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Not in many years has the country been called upon to
mourn a disaster that so profoundly moves the general
sympathy as does the burning in the East Eiver yesterday
of the excursion steamer General Slocum.
Even in the numbers done to death the catastrophe
threatens to surpass the Iroquois Theatre flre in Chicago,
which seemed at the time to reach the limit of the mischief
that man's careless cupidity can do. And again, as in that
memorable instance, the chief sufferers are those of the
weaker sex and of tender age. To think of all those helpless
women, of the little children in their gay holiday garb
donned for a day of pleasure, now lying dead, needlessly
sacrificed, compels even pity not more than honest indigna
tion. For needlessly sacrificed they were. That so many per-

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 227
sons should die in broad daylight upon a crowded harbor
arm without fault of unpreparedness for such emergencies
is inconceivable. There was heroism enough: the engineer died at his
I post, like another Bludso. Tugs, rowboats, barges
¦ promptly gathered for the work of rescue. The crew did
as much as its numbers and its obvious lack of drill would
permit. The usual stories of vessels that passed by, know
ingly refusing aid, may be dismissed as improbable. The
captain may be criticised for driving his boat a mile into
the teeth of a strong wind;. but his was at least a trained
judgment, liable to error but doing its best at a critical
moment. For the chief burden of fault we must go further.
It was in the boat herself ; in her rotten and useless "life
preservers;" in her scanty equipment for fighting fire; but
above and beyond all else in her construction, which fitted
her and others like her for a fire-trap and for nothing
else. This is no new discovery. The World has already, has
emphatically, has repeatedly sho^wn the criminal absurdity
of "inspection" laws that permit the officials to examine
boilers and count passengers' noses, but do not permit them
to question the safety of the hull except as to seaworthi-
. ness. Perhaps, with the lesson of this frightful disaster be
fore it. Congress may now frame the legislation that has
been so long urged upon it. For it is not one excursion
boat alone that is a mere tinder-heap of painted wood. It
is not in New York Harbor alone but in every waterway
in the country that passengers daily trust their lives to craft
that are kno-wn to be grossly unfit for their purpose, yet
which no present law will touch.
It is a disgrace to our civilization that these things should
be. No excursion boat should be permitted to take aboard
a single passenger that is not equipped, manned, pre-

228 THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
pared by constant drill and rigid discipline, and first and
most important of all, built to carry that passenger in
safety. — World.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM.
No tale could more fully combine the elements of pity
and horror than that we have to tell to-day. The ghastly
contradiction involved in the fact that those who found a
fiery fate in the destruction of the Iroquois Theater in
Chicago had betaken themselves there not on business but
for pleasure is carried a step further in the later tragedy.
For most of the victims of this were chUdren, for whom
amusement is allowed to be properly the chief interest and
aim in Ufe by adults who would reject as frivolous and un
worthy the designation of pleasure seekers for themselves.
That a Sunday School picnic should all at once become a
hideous massacre is revolting to the imagination which is
not deeply stirred by the announcement that an equal num
ber of gro^wn men have been done to an equally horrible
death at the other end of the world. For those are sol
diers, "whose business 'tis to die," but these were helpless
and harmless children, whose business is to be happy.
And yet the fatalities of this disaster would make an
impression by their number, even in dispatches from the
seat of war in the Far East. A conflict involving an equal
loss of life would be more than an "affair." Although the
exact number of victims in this case cannot yet be known,
and may not be known for days, it is already certain that
the buming of the General Slocum holds the melancholy
"record" of like disasters in these waters. We must go
back to the wreck of the Seawanhaka, more than twenty
years ago; to the wreck of the Westfield, more thah thirty.

THB GENEEAL SLOOUM DISASTEE. 329'
to find matter for comparison. And neither of those mem
orable wrecks was comparable to this in the number of the
fatalities. One is entitled to use of such a disaster in sad
literalness the term so often loosely abused, and to describe
it as a "holocaust."
It is a holocaust, a "burnt offering" to the spirit of
cupidity which keeps a fioating fire-trap in service as an
excursion boat, to be crammed with all the people that can
be inveigled on board of her, in spite of the fact that by her
construction she is a mere tinder-box, and that, if the fire
which she invites once breaks out on board of her, the great
majority of her passengers have no chance for their lives.
Doubtless there wiU be a rigid investigation into the speci
fic responsibility of her o^wners and managers for this dis
aster, and if they are found to have offended against the
law we may expect their punishment. But it is not the
fault of her ovraers and managers that they have been al
lowed to offer a fioating fire-trap for "pleasure excursions"
for as many persons as she would hold. There are others
left which constitute quite as much a menace to life as she.
Whenever there is a pageant upon the water, in the form of
a civic celebration or of an international yacht race, there
are to be seen in it half a dozen of these antiquated craft,
loaded to the guards with humanity, of which every one
excites, im the passengers of safer steamers and even in
her own, the reflection how helpless she would be and how
hopeless those on board, if the long-expected should hap
pen. This awful disaster should not be suffered to pass
without providing matter for edification as well as for re
proof. Why should not the excursionists on a steamboat
in New York Harbor be as safe from the risk of being
burned to death as the passengers of an ocean liner, in
which, by her constmction and by the precautions forced
upon her managers either by law or by an enlightened self-

230 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
interest, that risk is so reduced as to be practically negligi
ble ? Why should not the harbor boat be as incombustible
as to her structural parts as the liner, and why should not
aU the precautions kno^wn against fire be equally enforced
for the protection of her passengers? The chief lesson of
this disaster is that the standard of construction upon- ex
cursion steamers must by law be raised to that of the best
modern practice and that the antiquated assemblages of
floating junk which now threaten their passengers with a
horrible death must no longer be allowed to take passen
gers at aU. — N. Y. Times.

THE STEAMBOAT CALAMITY — HOEEOES AND HEEOIC DEEDS.
"I'll hold her nozzle ag'in the bank
Till the last galoot's ashore."
In the immediate shadow of the calamity that throws
a paU over the community this moming, attempts to place
responsibility for the horror would be premature.
The actual author of the fire may never be discovered,
but the official investigations may elicit and coUate facts
now misunderstood or unknown and which would subvert
any judgment reached amid the present excitement and
confusion. On such occasions the popular first impulse is to con
demn the o^wners of the vessel and those in command. In '
this instance, however, it is apparent that all requirements
of the govemment inspectors who examined the General
Slocum only a few weeks ago were fully complied with,
while the captain emulated "Jim Bludso" and with the en
gineer bravely clung to his post on the burning boat until
she was fast ashore.
One ray of light amid the awful gloom of the story told

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 231
this morning is found in the numberless heroic actions
performed by women and men amid the sickening scenes of
the disaster. Whether the captain erred in judgment in
not making an earlier landing, or whether many of the
life preservers on board were defective, as charged, are
matters to be determined later. The startling fact which
overshadows all others is that a boat said to be one of the
best of her class and only recently approved by the inspec
tors as in perfect condition should in the waters of the city
and in plain sight of its wharves burn up so fast that the
lives of about one-half of her passengers were lost.
The chief blame seems to be not with individuals, bui;
with the system under which such a catastrophe is possible..
As is well known, the Federal Government has charge of
all steam vessels plying our navigable waters. Inspections
of the hull, machinery, life-saving appliances and other de
vices are made at least once a year by government officials
and licenses are granted. Knowledge that there is such
official supervision inspires the public with confidence. But
it is mournfully evident that this system looks only to the
soundness of the vessel and her appliances, whatever these
may be, and does not make such radical requirements touch
ing the material of the hull or superstructure as would
guard against such a calamity as that of yesterday.
Craft with frail and highly inflammable superstructures
should not be licensed to carry thousands of helpless women
and children. When the slight wooden stanchions — pre
sumably covered with oil paint — that supported the upper
deck of the General Slocum burned the deck collapsed.
Iron stanchions and iron deck beams and generally non-
combustible upper works should be demanded in every
excursion craft. The Federal authorities should either
abandon their system of supervision of such vessels or make
it effectual. — New York Herald.

233 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
THE STEAMBOAT CALAMITY AND ITS LESSON.
Sitting in the midst of our dead, as we are to-day, it is
fitting as thinking beings we should put aside the horror
of it all and calmly and dispassionately see what lessons
the burning of the steamboat General Slocum conveys.
With about seven hundred lives wiped out, nearly aU the
rictims being women and children, the investigation of the
disaster must be thorough.
In the first place it may be stated that no blame is ap
parently attachable to the officers and crew of the boat, all
of whom behaved with heroism, the engineer dying at his
post. So far it is not clear just how or where the fire started.
There was an explosion, eye witnesses say, and the lamp
room is mentioned as a possible source. The life preserv
ers, it is said, were rotten. There has rarely been a disas
ter afioat when the same charge has not been made, oft-
times substantiated, but if punishment has ever been in
flicted it is not of record and certainly has not been de
terrent. The main trouble seems to rest with the Federal inspec
tion. The boat, which was passed on a few weeks ago and
pronounced perfect, is now described as a fire-trap, unfit to
carry passengers. And yet she wa-s one of the largest and
best of the excursion boats plying here.
Everybody to-day agrees that the investigation must be
thorough. It ¦will, perhaps, be well in sixty or ninety days
irom now to look back to the fateful day, Wednesday, June
15, and see whether the 700 souls, and the brave engineer
who died like Jim Bludso, were sacrificed in vain.
We might also recall the Windsor Hotel fire of six years
ago and the Chicago theater horror of last December, and
see what lessons we learned from them. — Evening Telegram.

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 233

THE GENERAL SLOCUM HORROR.
Who is responsible for the awful loss of life by the
burning of the excursion steamboat General Slocum ? What
measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of such a
disaster? These are questions that press for an answer.
All that can possibly be done for the injured and af
flicted will be done by a community that is never want
ing in s3Tiipathy and generosity.
The investigation should begin at once and be eon-
ducted with deliberation and fairness. But let it not be
swerved from the true course of justice by heroics and cheap
sentiment. The flre that destroyed the General Slocum and
caused a loss of many hundreds of lives was not, to use the
legal term, an act of God. Some one was responsible for
the first burst of fiame, although that may never be deter
mined ; some one was responsible, it may be presumed, for
a failure to extinguish the fire before most of the passen
gers were doomed to a horrible death and it should be
possible to fix the responsibility. Furthermore, it should be
determined whether the captain and his officers sacrificed
lives by incompetence and failure of judgment. That they
behaved with physical courage is not in dispute. Thank
God for that ! Captain William Van Schaick and his pilots
Van Wart and Weaver remained at their posts until the
General Slocum struck bottom on North Brother Island,
and it required undaunted courage to do this, for the peril
of death in the fiames encompassed them. They are now
in prison cells in Bellevue Hospital, suffering from their
burns. These are some of the things that must be inquired into,
and there must be no qualifying and no flinching. Did

¦234 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Captain Van Schaick know that there was a fire on his
boat when she was off 110th street? If he did, was the
danger realized and promptly dealt with by the crew under
the direction of the officers? This, of course, involves
questions whether the General Slocum was thoroughly
equipped with appliances for fighting fire, and whether the
crew was regularly drilled in the use of them. If the captain
was fully alive to the peril of his passengers, most of
whom were women and children, did he at once blow his
whistles for assistance and set a distress signal ? It is said
that even when the General Slocum was past 138th street
and nearing North Brother Island the Franklin Edson and
•other boats coming alongside rescued a considerable num
ber of passengers. Did Captain Van Schaick exercise good
judgment in not putting in to shore, though there might
be the risk of setting fire to some inanimate lumber yard;
or in not running his boat on the Sunken Meadows ? Ex
pert testimony must decide these questions. The stage and
force of the tide and the difficulty of na^vigating in the
rocky bed and swirling waters of the channel must be con
sidered. Judgment should be suspended until all the facts
are brought out.
It is charged that many of the life preservers were old
or worthless. It is known that the rail of the -hurricane
deck gave way, precipitating about 300 people into the
water and to almost certain death. A defect in construe- -
tion is indicated, and this concerns, we believe, the Board of
Steamboat Inspectors, as the condition of the life preserv
ers does. The disaster should compel an official overhaul
ing of all the pleasure boats in the harbor, to ascertain
whether they are made as fireproof as possible, and whether
they are supplied with life preservers that will sustain a
hody in the water and with up-to-date apparatus for fight
ing fire. — Evening Sun.

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 235

THE EXCURSION BOAT SLAUGHTER.
Theee is something unspeakably horrible about the
slaughter of women and little chUdren, yet as it was the
sacrifice of the young, the tender and the helpless in the
Chicago theater fire last autumn which aroused official au
thority everywhere in this country to a danger long disre
garded, so again in the sickening waste of life among women
and children in the frightful disaster to an^cursion boat
have we another revolting waming of a peril of which all
men have been long aware, few heedful.
It must seem incomprehensible that in the East Eiver,
almost within a stone's throw of shore, a vessel could be
burned, with a sudden rush to death of hundreds, before she
had time to reach land. But the fact looming large, grim
and ghastly, what are we to say of those who lure the public
into fioating pyres of tinder that may blot out the lives of
ihe human cargo in a fiash? What are we to say of the
official authority which encourages or permits such inven
tion and practice of slaughter?
As Chicago officials were indicted for their participa
tion in the hideous crime of the Iroquois Theater fire, shall
not indictments lie against officials here who have shared
in the fatal work of yesterday ? In this way only, it seems,
may others be spared — for there are other pyres of floating
tinder waiting for other victims, women and little children
— from the fiery fate of those who in the General Slocum
voyaged to their awful end. — N. Y. Press.

THE FLOATING TINDEE BOX.

A EIGID governmental inspection keeps the boilers of the
larbor excursion boats safe and reduces to a minimum the

236 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
risk of accident from weakness of hull or other defect of
sea-going qualities. The law provides for life boats and
fire appliances.
But such an inspection takes no account of the tinder-
box nature of the superstructure of such craft. It fixes no
penalties for insecure upper decks or the layer upon layer
of paint on old woodwork. It ignores the presence of in-
fiammable material which a coal from the fire-boxes or a
spark from a pipe may ignite.
Nor does it secure under penalty the presence on the
spot of trained men ready to put to instant use the fire
bucket and hose provided. The law cannot satisfactorily
prescribe that human vigilance which is the best preventive
of disaster.
But at least it should be able to abolish the conditions
of infiammability which invite it. It should be able ta
order a more efficient patrol on excursion CTaft and to that
extent reduce the gravity of fire peril.
There have been two instances within a year of ferry
boats afire in midstream, on one of which it was impossible
to subdue the flames except by proceeding full speed ashore.
Attention was called at the time to the grave risk run
through the absence of adequate fire-fighting apparatus.
The General Slocum horror, which realizes what the
ferry-boats escaped by sheer good fortune, will have served
ong good end if it prompts an investigation to devise a
greater measure of security to the innumerable thousands
whose lives may be in peril of a similar fate on tinder-box
craft. What the Iroquois disaster accomplished in diminishing
the risks undergone by theater-goers the burning of the
General Slocum should do for all who go on harbor or
river excursions hereafter. — Evening World.

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 837

INFLAMMABLE BOATS.
Aftee such a horror as that of yesterday, there is a
search for reasons. They are not always to be found, yet
they exist, or the accident would not have happened. We
do not believe that such a disaster could have occurred on
a ship of the American Navy, nor on one of the Atlantic
'liners. There the discipline would have been better, tho
safeguards more numerous, the construction of the ships
ihemselves more sound. Larger ships are exposed to dan
gers of' their own, it is true. In the na-vy there is the pos
sibility of an explosion of the magazine, or such an outbreak
of flame from the breech of the rifled cannon as caused
death on one of our warships recently. In the trans-At
lantic ser^vice there is also the possibility of collision with
an iceberg, and more than one ship which has never reached
her port was hurried to her end in that fashion. The dan
ger of flre on vessels of every class is constant, but less
than the danger among fixed constructions that accommo
date equal numbers of people on shore, for the laws re
garding the care of cooking ranges, lighting matches and
so on are carefully observed, as a rule, so long as the ves
sel is at her dock, whereas in the crowded tenement there
are no such laws, and if there were, it would be impossible
io enforce them.
It was confidence that sent hundreds to their death yes
terday — confidence that the General Slocum was in trim,
well manned, equipped with all the fitments for safety of
life and rescue. The merest suspicion of such an awful
tragedy as occurred a few yards from our shore would have
led to a complete overhauling of the boat, to a test of her
steering gear, which is alleged by some to have been at
fault ; of her fire hose and grenades ; to an inspection of her

238 the GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
galleys, or lamp room, where the fire is supposed to have
started, and certainly to a substitution of real life preserv
ers for the fUmsy shams that were removed from the bodies.
These life preservers are made of rotten canvas, that can be
broken by the finger nail, and filled with powdered cork
instead of lumps and sheets of the bark that would have
had some floating value. The cords by which they are ad
justed are as rotten as the canvas, and came apart in the
effort to tie them. Then there were the boats. Little
seems to have been accomplished by them. The crowds
pressed about them so that only two could be put off, it is
said. Yet every craft is supposed to be pro^vided ¦with
enough of life rafts and life boats to carry off the comple
ment of passengers and crew in an emergency.
The most damaging fact concerning the Slocum is that
she was made of wood. She was of an obsolete type, al
though she was only a dozen or fifteen years old. At the
time of her launching she was called the best excursion
steamer in American waters, and from that day till the end
of her she was in constant use in summer. She was made
for the carrying of 2,500 people, but it is alleged that ia
service between Manhattan and Eockaway she sometimes
carried 4,000. What a mercy that this accident did not
happen at such a time, and when she was in deep water!
She was in collision or aground on several occasions, but
was never before seriously on fire. In one of her mishaps,
when she ran aground in Eockaway Inlet, there was a panic,
but no lives were lost. It was then learned that she had
only six boats and four rafts, capable in all of carrying
250 persons, or one-tenth of the number she was licensed
to carry. An amazing circumstance !
Iron ships are vulnerable, and by reason of their weight
they may sink more quickly than a wooden one; but as
ihey contain less that is infiammable the chances of life in

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 233*
disaster or panic are much greater. This wholesale dro^wn-
ing and this holocaust, for death came in fiood and fiame,
will probably have the effect of retiring the wooden boats
about our waters, or at least consigning them to freight
service. It will certainly have the effeet of inducing a more
honest and- competent inspection of all steamers, so that no
more shall be permitted to go out with tanks of gasolene
in the rooms, leaky and disjointed hose on the decks, in
sufficient life boats on davits that will not turn, and life
preservers that are fastened to inaccessible places and are-
useless after being unfastened. The officers and crew of"
the Slocpm played their part like men. They did all they
could to save their boat and keep the crowd in order. But
they could do little on a wooden vessel, with paint, oil and.
old camp chairs on her decks, and boats for only a few.
In buildings on shore we require frequent inspection —
whether it is given or not — and conformity to certain rules, -
such as moderate use of wood and a sufficient number of
stairways and fire escapes. The schools, hospitals, factor
ies, halls, theaters into which great numbers are gathered
are made more enduringly and soundly to-day than ever
before. Fireproof materials such as stone, brick, steel and
cement are increasingly in use, and within a few days we-
have seen how adequate drill and consciousness of safe
provisions have prevented disorder in our schools when fires
have broken out. Why not the same sincerity of workman
ship in buildings made to float, and destined to be twice as
densely peopled?
The ocean liner, made to carry a thousand, is supplied
with abimdance of boats and rafts, flre hose and grenades,
her crew is well drilled, her hull is di^vided into water-tigh-tr
compartments, so that unless she strikes a rock with a tre
mendous shock it is possible to close these compartments-
and preserve a large measure of her buoyancy. The iron par-

240 TPIE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
titions that will keep out water will also keep out flame and
smoke, and the passengers can readily be gathered into the
nninjured divisions of the ship. Yet we permit companies
of people twice and three times as large as these liners
would carry to put to sea in wooden cockle sheUs that a
careless smoker may set on fire. It must be a salutary
revolution in marine architecture that will be induced by
this buming of the Slocum. We must have boats that, if
they will burn at all, will bum so slowly that the passengers
can be removed in safety. The tragedy of yesterday must
never be repeated. — Brooklyn Eagle.

THE AWFUL TRAGEDY OF THE SLOCUM.
If it were legal to indict a man for lack of judgment
when it resulted in many deaths and much indescribable
mental and bodily suffering, the captain of the excursion
boat Gen. Slocum might be held responsible in the criminal
courts for a great part of the terrible loss of life which
marked the awful tragedy of yesterday. The fire was first
discovered when the excursion boat was opposite the Sunken
Meadows, in the East Eiver, about 135th street. There was
no appreeiaMe interval between the discovery of the flames
and the knowledge that the fire would spread all over the
boat and cause a frightful loss of life unless help in some
efficient shape should be offered at once. Instead of turn
ing the boat and beaching her without delay on the Sunken
Meadows the captain and pilot decided to run to North
Brother Island, nearly a mile away, and beach the boat
on a shelving shore without rocks. That decision caused
the loss of many precious lives. With the Slocum, one of
ihe fastest boats in the harbor, dashing ahead at more thau

THB GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 241
twenty miles an hour through a strong June breeze, the
flames and smoke that would have made the pilot-house un
inhabitable were carried back to shrivel and blind the
frightened hundreds in the after parts of the boat. It was
the surest way possible to increase the loss of life. The
increased velocity of the boat fanned the flames until soon
the £pace between decks was a fiery furnace which claimed
many a victim there and then, but drove many more over
the sides of the vessel to a less terrible if not less certain
death. The speed of the big excursion steamer prevented
all of the smaller craft which would have saved many lives
from keeping up with her. And, as far as known, the only
official persons aboard who sought to prevent a panic and
save the poor, terrified people from trampling one another
to death, even before the hungry flames reached them or
they jumped blindly into the river, were the two policemen
detailed to look after the excursionists on their trip. The
¦deckhands, probably in great part the usual summer crew
picked up here and there, were nowhere in evidence, as try
ing to put out the fire, which some have said might easily
have been done at the start, or in helping to quiet the peo
ple so as to increase the chance of rescue. There does not
seem to be any redeeming feature to the dreadful picture
from the side of the owners, managers or crew of the Slo
cum. She was a death trap so far as fire is concerned. When
the fire, that was almost invited, came, the worst possible
judgment -was displayed by the captain and pilots in hand
ling the vessel, while there is no record of any member of
the crew saving, or even attempting to save, a life other
than his own, although instances of self-sacrificing heroism
among the excursionists themselves, and the gallant men
and women, aj'^e, and children (for some of the rescuers were
lads under 15 years of age) who saved the lives of those who
were saved, were many and splendid. Of the families af-

242 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
fected by the dreadful disaster those are best off which were
wiped out altogether. The sur-vivors, many maimed and
tortured in their bodies, and none of them free from a sort
of desolation men can think about but scarcely realize
while themselves untouched in a personal way, by the awful
tragedy, are the objects of sympathy for a city, indeed for
a nation. They are in all our hearts to-day, surrounded
by a people who would do anything in their power to alle
viate the deep-set misery of these stricken ones, and for
that reason perhaps we may hope for some assuagement
of the terrible pain of irrevocable loss which has befallen
our countrymen and countrywomen, our brothers and sis
ters surviving, of St Mark's Lutheran Church. — Brooklyn
Standard Union.

THE SLOCUM DISASTEE.
Words are ioo feeble to express the pity and horror of
this disaster. The character of the victims — ^women,
mostly, and children of tender years — the swiftness of the
destruction that has overtaken half a modest parish, the
terror of sweeping flames, and of loaded decks collapsing
into the furnace below — all of these heart-rending features
of yesterday's tragedy strain the compassion of the mere
reader to the point of numbness. But out of the great pity
of it an indignant voice must find strength to cry: Was
this sickening calamity preventable, or must we expect to
see it repeated from time to time ?
Preventable, in the fullest sense, it probably was not.
Nobody can wholly provide against the momentary careless
ness of a cook or deckhand ; probably nobody can stay the
first mad movement of panic that comes when the cry of
fire is raised on a crowded excursion boat. Nor can one
guard against errors of judgment in a captain; it appears

THE GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 243
that the brave captain of the General Slocum made a fright
ful blunder that fateful day in not beaching his boat at the
nearest point. But he judged by his best lights under con
ditions calculated to shake the soundest judgment. The
deckhands, also, who never lowered a boat, perhaps repre
sent the inevitably inferior labor employed. In a large
degree, however, the accident was preventable. The death
list should not have run beyond those crushed or pushed
overboard in the first panic. The responsibility for hun
dreds of the lives sacrificed lies at the door of the Govern
ment steamboat inspectors, who declared that the General
Slocum was properly provided with fire and life-saving
apparatus. In the face of this false declaration, look at the facts:
Pumps and fire hose failed to work, not a boat was low
ered, not a life-raft fioated, the life preservers dragged
down those who wore them. What help came to the fated
vessel was from outside, and accidental. The General Slo
cum, bearing the inspectors' certificate of full equipment,
had no effective means of saving her own hull from fire or
the life of a single passenger from drowning. We are not
writing at random in this matter; we have talked with
those who drew ashore bodies actually weighted down by
the life preservers that Inspector Lundberg declares in an
interview were "in good condition." We know that these
life belts, when thro-wn into the water, sank like stones;
when ripped open displayed a mixture of soggy cork and
glue, no more buoyant than so much dirt. Now, recall
that the fire hose which did not work, the life-rafts which
could not be released from their wire lashings, the life pre
servers which came to pieces when they could be reached,
and dragged down the unfortunate swimmers who wore
them, had all been inspected and declared not only servicer
able, but of the first quality. These life-belts, which pos-

244 THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE.
sibly had never been buoyant, bore an inspector's mark of
buoyancy from the factory, and the certificate of successive
inspectors that no deterioration had taken place. Inspector
Lundberg, on May 5 last, certified under oath that the life
preservers were 500 in excess of the legal requirement, and
all in good condition. He said yesterday that he tested all
"that appeared in any way old," and did not reject one.
So the farce of Government steamboat inspection in this
port has ended in tragedy! There is too much reason to
fear that scores of boats in this harbor are in no better
condition than the General Slocum. A year ago last Feb
ruary this paper pointed out the fact that the local steam
boat inspection was intentionally perfunctory. It has needed
the holocaust of June 17 to make that warning of any avail.
Making inquiry of the owner of certain harbor boats as to
ihe condition of his fiotilla we receive the answer: "My
boats ought to be well equipped, for I do not bribe the in
spectors." It is only too clear that we have to do not
only with laxness in the inspection, but with corruption as
well. Possibly the laws are inadequate. Evidently fire-
proofing should be applied to the flimsy wooden superstruc
ture of boats of the harbor type. But surely it is futile to
pass new laws when those we have are winked at or sold for
a price. The dreadful lesson of yesterday will have been
incompletely learned unless compassion for the poor women
and children who perished so miserably be converted into
effective indignation against those whose indifference or
venality has multiplied this horror sevenfold.
In contrast with this sickening record of cowardice and
incompetency shines the brighter the heroism of many on
board the Slocum and of a whole army of volunteer res
cuers. Such of the story as we can gather we tell else
where. Much of it can never be told, for many of those who
between two deaths played the hero are gone beyond recog-

THE GENEEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 245
nition. All the more reason, then, to do honor to those
devoted men and women whose individual valor saved many
lives that otherwise must have been sacrificed to the negli
gence of the State and the parsimony of a corporation —
Evening Post.

THE EAST EIVEE TEAGEDY.
To parallel the horror of the burning of the General
Slocum in the East Eiver, we must look abroad. Nothing
like it is recorded in our history.- Only twice, in foreign
watersj it has been duplicated — not by fire, indeed, but by
collision and simple fate. In September, 1878, the steam
er Princess Alice, with over 900 souls on board, was sunk
in the Eiver Thames, within the bounds of London, and
640 persons were lost. On May 24, 1881, the steamer
Victoria, loaded with a holiday crowd, capsized in the
Thames near London, Ontario, and nearly 600 persons
were drowned. These, like the Slocum, were excursion
boats, crowded by amusement seekers, and women and chil
dren made up the greater part of those who perished.
Nearly five hundred persons are kno^wn to have been lost
in the burning of the Slocum, and estimates enlarge the
number to 1,000, and even to 1,200. The latter number is
sufficiently ghastly, and there is little hope that it will not
be reached. It is seldom that a disaster involving the death
of so many persons is so localized in its effects as is this.
Almost all of the victims came from a German Protestant
colony in the midst of a huge population of Eoman Catho
lics and Jews, and it is not unlikely that in many cases
the families of the lost wiU bear their grief silently, and
not permit the public to know of it. St. Mark's Church,,
apparently, is wiped out.

:246 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER.
It is too early yet to place the responsibility for the fire,
or to say whether all was done at first that should have been
done. Conflicting stories are told of the actions of the
hoat's crew, and the captain of the Slocum is criticised for
mot having run his vessel inshore before he did. Captata
Van Schaick is an old harbor captain, and must be assumed^
to have done his best to protect his passengers and himself. '
The conditions confronting him — the flre, the strong tide,
ihe possibility that his steering gear or machinery might
give way — cannot be passed upon by a landsman. But
when the flre had got beyond control, and the vessel was
seen to be doomed, almost no criticism can be made of the
efforts put forth to save life. Excepting, as alleged, the
captains of a ferryboat and a yacht, everyone who could
aid did so. Volunteers of all sorts and conditions lent as
sistance in saving life and recovering the dead. In the
rescue work of individuals is found the only lightening of
ihe horror of the flre.
When the first shock of the disaster is over, it wiU be
needful to investigate its causes, and to place the blame for
the great loss of life. It may be asserted now that the ulti
mate responsibility cannot rest on the shoulders of the
captain and crew of the vessel, but must at least be shared
by the Slocum's o^wners, and possibly by others. It is said,
seemingly with truth, that the life preservers were useless,
being old and made of bad material, and that the fire-ex
tinguishing apparatus was poor, if not actuaUy bad. The
whole question of steamboat inspection under the Federal
laws is involved in this disaster, and the further question
of the safety of the excursion boat business of the city. It
•seems terribly clear that the spirit of the laws is not ob
served, however closely the letter may be followed.
The investigation must be searching, the finding must be
definite, the action based on it must be decisive. The plea

THB GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 247
that the fire and the consequent loss of life was the act of
God cannot be accepted. God helps those who help them
selves, and imless all proper precautions were observed, the
death of 600 persons is a crime legally and morally charge
able on those who neglected them and took the risk when
hundreds of innocent lives were at stake. — Evening Mail.

SOME OBVIOUS LESSONS.
It is as useless as it would be futile to search for words
to express adequately the full horror of the calamity of
June 17. The awful results, stated in the headlines of ihe
newspapers, leave nothing to be said. The first question
that arises in every horrified mind is : "How was such a
thing possible?" Following instantly and involuntarily
npon this comes a second question: "Is a like thing pos
sible upon any and every excursion steamer that plies about
ihe harbor?"
General Dumont, of the Steamboat Inspection Depart
ment of the Government, who should be an authority upon
the subject, says that the same conditions which ended in
the awful disaster on the General Slocum exist upon every
steamboat of this city engaged in the excursion business.
Like the General Slocum, all of them have their upper
works built of wood, all of them have these works painted
and varnished and made thoroughly inflammable in every
way, additional food for fire being supplied with hangings
and furnishings. The fiimsy joiner work, upon which
all the infiammable material is laid, is arranged in
ihe way most surely calculated to give fury to the flames,
heing piled up like kindling wood for a fire. Upon it ¦with
its coats of paint and varnish the sun beat's till it is almost
ready to ignite of itself. As General Dumont says :

248 THE GENERAL SLOCUM DI^STBE.
"People off for a holiday, men especially, smoke cigars
and cigarettes. Women and men read papers and throw
them away. There is a puff of wind while the boat is going
fast through the water, thus creating a breeze.
"A newspaper is blown under a seat. A lighted end of
a cigar or cigarette touches the paper and in a second there
is a blaze. Unless a fire on any excursion boat in our har
bor to-day can be quelled immediately, there is little hope
for the people aboard."
The conflagration broke out in as favorable a place for
safety as could be found in our waters. Land was near
and could be reached without long delay. It is not known
yet what the exact period of time was between the discovery
of the flr6 and the beaching of the boat, but it was as
brief as could be expected to occur under any other con
ditions. Yet so rapid was the progress of the flames that
500 lives were destroyed. If the fire had broken out in
the open Sound or in the lower bay, as it might have done,
and might do in an excursion boat at any time, what
chances would there have been for the escape of anybody?
This is not alarmist talk, but the first duty of the mo
ment. General Dumont says the fault is not in the inspec
tion methods, but in the laws; that the fault lies in the
building of the boats and that there is no law to compel
ihe building of a different sort ; that even those which have
steel hulls have the same infiammable and fiimsy wood
superstructure, and would be no safer in case of fire than
the General Slocum was. He declares that, with a single
exception, the steamboats of the present day are no safer
than those built thirty years ago, because the same methods
of upper construction are used. What he says on this point
should be made the basis for immediate action :
, "A good many years ago I pointed out that another dan
ger on the excursion boat was about the boiler. A boiler

THB GENBEAL SLOCUM DISASTEE. 249
with a fire in it is always a danger spot. The only boat
absolutely safe under these conditions is the C. W. Morse
of the new People's Line to Albany. That boat has a steel
sheeting all about her boiler and extending from hull to
upper deck. She can't get afire from her boiler. The laws
ought to be changed so that no fiimsy joiner work is used
in any boat designed for excursion traffic, and all boilers
should be fully sheathed in steel. Then the public can be
carried in safety."
There is no escape from this criticism, if the facts upon
which it rests cannot be disputed. The laws in regard to
steamboat construction should be amended by the next Con
gress ia the direction General Dumont suggests. Steel
sheathing for the boilers would not have prevented the dis
aster if the fire started in some other part of the vessel,
but steel sheathing is possible for any portion of the boat
in which there is possibility of a fire originating. But surely
the time has come to stop building firetraps upon the hulls
of our steamboats. The same law of safety which requires
fireproof construction in our theatres should require the
same construction in the deck work of all steamboats. It
will not answer, after this awful warning, to say that pres
ent methods of construction have been safe and can be
trusted to be so in future. They contain the largest ele
ment of peril, instead of the least. All the ingredients for
a conflagration are supplied, instead of being vigorously
excluded. We must go to the other extreme, reverse the
process of construction, strip the hulls of their flimsy wood
work, their paint and varnish and oiled canvas coverings,
their hangings and gaudy ornamentation, and construct
them of steel and asbestos and other fireproof material,
sacrificing show to safety, as we have done in our theatres.
— New York Globe.

250 THE GENERAL SLOOUM DISASTEE.

MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY.

KAISER WILLIAM SENDS MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY.
The following telegram from the German Ambassador
at Washington, Baron Speck von Sternberg, enclosing a
cablegram from the German Emperor, was received by the
Eev. Mr. Haas: "Washington, D. C, June 18, 1904.
"Eev. George Haas, Sixth street. New York:
"The foUowing cablegram has just been communicated
to me by His Majesty the Kaiser :
" 'Being most profoundly affected by the news of the in
describably horrible catastrophe which has overtaken the
Lutheran congregation, I command you to express to it my
innermost feelings of sorrow.'
"In carrying out the command of my most gracious sov
ereign, allow me at the same time to offer you my o^wn
personal sympathy. Sternberg."

PRESIDENT ROOSE-VELT JVIRES HIS SYMPATHY.
The Eev. George C. F. Haas, the pastor of the church,
received the foUowing message of sympathy from President
Eoosevelt :
"To the Eev. George C. F. Haas, St. Mark's German
Lutheran Church:
"Accept my profound sympathy for yourself, your church
and your people. Theodore Eoosevelt.'"

THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER. 251
EBLIEF COMMITTEE IS APPOINTED BY MAYOE.

To THE Citizens of New York :
The appalling disaster by which more than five hundred
men, women and children lost their lives by fire and drown
ing, has shocked and horrified our city. Knowing the keen
sympathy of the people of the City of New York with
their stricken fellows, I have appointed a committee of
citizens to receive contributions to a fund to provide for
the fit and proper burial of the dead and for such other
relief as may be necessary.
The following gentlemen have been asked to serve on
the committee.: Morris K. Jesup, Joseph C. Hendrix,.
Jacob H. Schiff, Thomas Mulry,
Herman Eidder, George Ehret,
Charles D. Dickey, John Fox,
E. A. Van Courtlandt, John Weinacht,
Erskine Hewitt, H. B. Scharmann.
Until the committee has had an opportunity to organize
I shall be glad to receive contributions at the Mayor's of
fice. As a sign of mourning I have ordered the fiags on the
City Hall to be put at half-mast. George B. McClellan, Mayor.

the end.

A STORY OF FIRE AND DEATH!
We desire to announce that we have just
issued the full and complete story of the
SEN. SLOCOM DISASTER
by which nearly 1200 lives were lost in Hell Gate, New York
Harbor, and which has created an intense interest through
out the country and whioh will have a large sale. We want
an AGENT in every town to sell this book.
Everyone has heard of this great disaster, and will want
this book which gives the complete particulars.
It contains 250 pages, and is bound in paper cover,
price, 25 cents ; bound in cloth, 50 cents. It also contains
12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS,
showing scenes and incidents in connection with the calam
ity. A bright boy can sell 100 copies in your town,
and if you cannot act as our Agent please hand this circular to
some one who might be glad of the chance to make money in
selling it. The following are our liberal terms to Agents:
Sample copy, paper cover, sent by mail, postpaid, 20 cents.
" clotli binding, " " " 40 "
After you have received your sample copy and have
taken your orders we will supply the books to you at the
following prices :
IOO Copies, Paper Cover, c^I^^^rrl^^^rhs, $13.00
Less than 100 copies, 15 cents per copy.
IOO Copies, Clotli Bound, c^Iil^r^I^^rhs. $25.00
Less than 100 copies, 30 cents per copy.
The above terms are given on condition that cash be
sent with the order, and the books will be sent immediately.
Address all orders to
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
57 Rose Street, New York.

3 9002 01387 1828

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